Final Fantasy 7 when it debut back on the PS1 it became a fan favorite. It had great game play and sound as well as an astonishing story line that shook every one and anyone that played it. It became a best seller and it is still played by fans today, just like any other classic game. Since that day fans have been waiting to see if anything will be done with the 7 series or if there’s anything that could fully explain how everything happened. However many of us just keep on going without wondering and sure enough Square Enix announces a few FF7 spin offs.
These Sequels and Prequels include FF7 Advent Children, Dirge of Cerberus, Before Crisis, and Crisis Core. Crisis Core being the latest game in the series made exclusively for the PSP talks about the events before FF7.
Crisis Core features many characters from the main game including Cloud, Tifa, Sephiroth and Aeries. The main story is focused on Zack and the Shinra Company with Zack trying to become a first class soldier just like his leader Angeal. At the time and I guess throughout all of the FF7 series cloud is just a low level soldier who never makes it to SOLDIER. The story also explains that Sephiroth is not the only one winged angel in the series but there are others. Somehow they are all able to fly fine with just one wing, I don’t know how they do it but hey they can fly.
Crisis Core is an Action Adventure game that is unlike the first game. Instead of moving from one place to the other you are given missions and sent to a certain place. The city is not as free roam as other Final Fantasy games are. You can enter houses but only a few select ones, you buy items via the menu and the game is not as challenging except for a few enemies. Random battles still occur however most of the time while moving along with the story you will see enemies jumping out of bushes or thin air to engage you in a battle. While in battle you will use a combination of magic and fighting styles to win. You hit with one button, dodge with another and defend with another. That’s really all there is to the battles. If you are like me you will most likely only use the Cure magic most of the time and all other types of magic to fight aerial enemies.
Just like FF7 you will use Materia to make your character stronger such as: increasing HP and MP, more stamina and attack power etc. You material will grow levels every time you battle. A new system is introduced which is called Digital Mind Wave, or "DMW", which revolves around a series of reels at the upper left corner of the screen which spin continuously as long as there is SP left to consume. Each rotate independently and upon lining up the three reels of the same character and value, a power-up or a "Power Surge!" will be rewarded to Zack. These attacks are similar to that of FF7 limit break and can deal a lot of damage to an enemy and can become very useful when boss battles occur. However Enemies also use this feature as well which is why I said that you will be using your cure magic a lot.
Graphically Crisis Core is one of the best looking PSP games on the PSP. The FMV sequences are nicely rendered and they take after the CG of Advent Children. Some CG battles on Crisis Core are phenomenal and it sure makes me glad that they used CG instead of the in game graphics. While you will not be able to see the entire world of Final Fantasy, the characters and the environments are nicely done. The camera needed a lot of work because it is always spinning around especially during a battle which will throw you off course. Some levels are very repetitive that you start thinking to yourself I’ve already been here and with lousy camera work you probably have been so you will have to turn around and go back where you came from where you where originally going to.
When playing CC:FF7 you can’t help but notice that Zack and maybe a few other characters look like Sora from kingdom hearts. Maybe this is because they have blue eyes and their expressions are the exactly the same. Who knows maybe that is Sora grown up and he just changed his name. But that would be taking it too far.
The sound track for FF7 has been rewritten for Crisis Core even the One Winged Angel song has been rewritten. While One Winged Angel is not as good as the AC version it is still an awesome song as well as the rest of the soundtrack. The game uses Instrumental Rock for battle sequences that match the enemies and the fast paced battle that is needed to get the player motivated. Sound effects are also amazing and clear. You can tell that the developers at Square put a lot of hard work into the Music.
Crisis core is just a one line pony and what I mean by that is, once you finish the game there is nothing left to do. Just like other RPG games where there is nothing to unlock. Crisis Core does however offer a stunning prequel to a great game and even though there is nothing to unlock just going back and playing the game over just to see those nicely rendered movies is totally worth it. After a few times you will probably be bored and then you can move on to the next game on your PSP library.
Crisis Core is out now in Japan and unless you are a diehard fan of the series and don’t mind the language then it is definitely worth importing the game. However If you are just like whatever and you do not need to play it until an English version is available then you might want to wait. I’ve decided to keep this review short because I am playing with an Import Copy of the game and I don’t speak Japanese so I don’t know what the hell they are saying. However by just watching the sequences of the game you can tell what is going on. Crisis Core offers a stunning prequel which tells the whole story of Zack and how he became the first class soldier that cloud always wanted to be. At the end of the game it explains why Cloud stole his Identity as well as his whole life. I am not going to say what happens all I will say is what the game says. “TO BE CONTINUED IN FINAL FANTASY 7…”
Story: a great prequel told through the eyes of Zack and a great tie in to FF7. 10/10
Game Play: Uses a similar fighting system to that of FF12, No free roam and not enough of a challenge for any FF7 fan. 6/10
Graphics: some of the best graphics on the PSP, some of the best CG on any PSP game with really fast loading. 10/10
Sound: Truly re-mastered soundtrack that gets the player motivated for each and every battle. 9/10
Life Span: nothing to unlock once the game is beaten. Like I said Just a one trick Pony. 5/10
