Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII Developed & Published by: Square Enix Release Date: USA (March 25, 2008) Europe (June 20, 2008) Japan (September 13, 207) Platform: PSP Remember back in the day when you played Final Fantasy? Where you were trying your best to level up characters in order to beat that final boss? Or when you played as Cloud or Tidus or Yuna? Brings back memories for you huh? Well, you can make more memories as Crisis Core takes place before the events of Final Fantasy VII. It is the tale of the unsung hero of Zack Fair, and how his actions and Project G/Project S influenced who both Zack and Cloud Strife became. Playing only as Zack Fair, a lackadaisical character, who has a tendency to act like a child sometimes. He is a SOLDIER 2nd Class, working for the Shin-Ra company, and is very eager to become one of the elite 1st Class members. There has been a mass desertion at SOLDIER and you are given more missions than normal. While a 2nd Class, he is mentored by the wise 1st Class SOLDIER Angeal Hewley. Angeal treats and even nicknames Zack as ‘a puppy’, claiming that he is not focused enough. Zack’s goal as a 2nd Class is to become 1st in order to fulfill his dream of becoming a hero. I will rule the world, it is my destiny Upon first sight of this game, I expected it to have graphics like that of God of War: Chains of Olympus, you know, the obvious video game look. But no, it far surpassed said game, and made it look pre-historic and pale in comparison. The downright detailing of every object and background demonstrates that Square Enix definitely made a valiant effort in making this exceptional game. Well, it is obvious as even before the PSP was released in December 2004, particularly the E3 2003 convention. First-time games and veterans get introduced or re-introduced to the ‘Materia’ system. Materia is basically magic enabling orbs. Materia comes in many different colors: yellow for magic physical attacks, green for pure magic attacks, blue for status healing and HP/MP/AP regain, red for summons, purple for skills increase and finally light purple for DMW usage. Something interesting included is the Materia Fusion option under the Pause menu. Here you can combine two Materia of any kind, to form a totally new and more powerful one. Upon completion of the game, the New Game Plus option allows you to fuse items with Materia, further increasing the endless possibilities. Why so sad Cloud? This game is truly sad at the end. So you expect countless hours of trying to level up, hacking and slashing your way through the land? Well you got it, but there is a twist. Remember the DMW in the last paragraph? DMW is short for Digital Mind Wave. This is a sort of roulette that constantly spins in the top left corner of the screen during battles. To use it is random: the screen flashes and time pauses, where a close up of the DMW on screen is shown. The roulette features the faces of several prominent characters from the franchise that are included in the game. Such characters are: Sephiroth, Genesis, Angeal, Cissinei, Aerith/Aeris and Cloud. Along with these character faces are numbers, between 1 and 7, which when each correspondingly aligns, for example 777, Zack will level up or 111, Zack will become invincible for the duration of the battle. Likewise, if all three roulette areas have three like faces, Zack will perform a move that mimics or has a similar movement based on their personality. So if 3 Sephiroth’s align, Zack will do his famous Octaslash, if 3 Aerith/Aeris aligns then he performs Healing Wave where all his HP is recovered, and if 3 Cissinei’s aligns, then he will perform Lucky Stars, where Zack increases his chance of getting more usage of the DMW system. DMW usage But there is another utilization for the DMW. This is to perform summons. At random times during the DMW spinning, the screen will flash from the regular faces to the monster faces/body. In order to use the Summons, you must have their Materia. Their Materia can be gained through: game missions, story missions and can be found in random mini-games. The same specification for the character faces apply for the Summons. Combat wise, Crisis Core is above par. Yeah, its hack and slash, and pretty damn hard to level up, but it gets too repetitive. The battle screen allows you to move anywhere in its area (aka free-roaming). I got tired of fighting the same monsters over and over, I just basically spammed some Firaga (fire spells) on them. However, it’s a pretty simple system, using the L and R buttons to navigate types of attack, square to dodge/roll, triangle to block and X to commence the attack. Any gamer would easily get used to these controls. And by the way, its very responsive, as you can block mid-attack, or dodge in the middle of a counter attack. Interestingly enough, I like the story the best, not only the cut-scenes which I got to say are pretty damn amazing, but how each character is introduced and how it has given the much needed back-story to Sephiroth’s and Cloud’s lives. Furthermore, the story flows; from to the little inexperienced SOLDIER Zack is at the beginning, to a leading 1st Class he becomes in the end, you have a feel that Zack has evolved as a character. Plus, not every part of the game is about missions, you also get to see a little romantic side between Zack and Aerith. Did I mention the E-mail system?A nice addition to the story is the optional missions. These can be accessed in the Pause menu at any save point. You can gain several new items to equip and Materia for summoning and magic. This inclusion leads to countless of hours of exploration and serves as a practice to level for boss battles. Score Sheet: Presentation: Everything is compiled together very nicely. The small pictures, big pictures, and icons are well made and detailed. Controls are clearly explained in-game. I love it, and it’s the best game for the PSP. Score: 10/10. Graphics: I would make love to this game, seriously. Graphics are the best you will ever get for a PSP, sometimes the game shows cut-scenes looking like its being played on a next-generation system. The best reason to get the game, so it gets a 10/10. Sound: Well, it’s a blend of the classic music and some new tunes as well. But you hear every sound; footsteps, your sword sheathing, and even bells chiming in towns. This gets a 9/10. Gameplay: The only problem, the battles are much too the same, just spam some magic or hack and slash your way through, but at least bosses put up a true challenge. Controls are easy to master and setup. I expected better though, unfortunately, it gets a 9/10. Lasting appeal: With a New Game Plus mode, tons of missions and a chance to redo the whole game over just to savor the story, this game truly have some good reasons for at least 1 full replay. I’ll give this an 8/10. Total: Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII slashes 46 monsters out of 50. But summons monsters from the DMW to deal with the other 4. I feel sorry for these henchmen... Closing Comments: This is a must-get game for the PSP. If you don’t have a PSP, then you must get it because this game truly revolutionized how cut-scenes are made. But its Square-Enix, who always has overblown cut-scenes, but back that up with some quality graphics, and you got yourself a damn good game to purchase/download. Personally, I remember when back when I played the FFVII back in the day, and I see how this easily fits into the schemes of things. So veteran FFVII or newcomer, you will definitely enjoy this game. Genesis: Let's be best friends forever! Sephiroth: Okay buddy! ... Quote from Genesis (Loveless Prologue): 'When the war of the beasts brings about the world’s end The goddess descends from the sky Wings of light and dark spread afar She guides us to bliss, her gift everlasting'
Thanks Anand, it took me about a week to decide to review this game, and about a quarter of a day to complete. Its nice to know my hard work paid off
Good review, I was thinking about getting this game while I wait for the stuff from dealextreme to get my custom firmware, and now I probably will.
just skimmed for errors on the first run. Cissinei is Cissnei, no extra i. and her DMW limit break thing sucks. I thought about doing a review for this. i might, i might not.
Thanks romz_mark, glad you liked it. @insane: once your in a heaveanly state, limit breakers appear more often. (after Cissnei's breaker). Its pretty useful in boss battles. And I'll make the change in the morning. Thanks
i get limit breaks enough as it is, and the 100% crit rate can be obtained by just hitting them in the back. the heavenly state is nice, but I don't see much of a difference. I get limit breaks every 10 seconds especially with non-MASTERED materia.
Actually I found it. But I really liked the Prologue, hence its in review. This is the link to it: http://finalfantasy.wikia.com/wiki/LOVELESS
Did you notice that the enemy in one of your pictures is called a Storm Trooper B? lol Nice review by the way. I don't think anyone really knows how the DMW works. It is full of surprises. I think Dirge of Cerberus had materia in it also, so this would be the third or fourth game (depending on Before Crisis) that used the materia system. Have you found any sweet materia fusion combinations? I think the main reason why I didn't like Dirge was because when I bought it, I was expecting it to be an all new turn based RPG, which it wasn't. I remember reading on wikipedia that Cissnei was in Before Crisis but she didn't have an actual name. I still don't understand the relationship between SOLDIER and the Turks, since they seem to operate under the same leader and have the same objectives.
