Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII Developer: Square Enix Published by: Square Enix Release Date: March 25, 2008 Looks like I was a little late getting this one published. dmac154 beat me to it. I got 'sucked in' by playing this game and I said, "The review can wait." I just wrote a six page analysis of "My Papa's Waltz," and only managed to get six pages, double spaced. I wrote this, and got 4 pages, not double spaced, without pictures. Sad, ain't it? Introduction: Crisis Core unravels the mystery of Zack Fair, and Sephiroth. When playing Final Fantasy VII, I was always confused as to why Zack and Sephiroth fought in the Mako Reactor in Nibelheim. My thoughts, the first time playing through Final Fantasy VII: “OK, so if Cloud is right there in that soldier’s uniform, then who the hell is this?†“Oh, it’s Zack…who the hell is Zack?†Crisis Core answers the ambiguity left behind in Final Fantasy VII. Playing Final Fantasy VII reminded me of reading the second book in a trilogy without bothering to read the first. We’re pulling a George Lucas again! I decided to introduce the characters now, before someone yells out, “Who the hell are you talking about?†Characters: Angeal: A 1st Class SOLDIER who is Zack’s mentor and friend. Sometimes, out of frustration, he desires to have Zack train under Sephiroth instead to see if Zack improves. Angeal never uses his Buster Sword as he claims that using it will degrade it. His sword is a symbol of his honor. He prefers using a smaller broadsword, much like Zack’s, or his fists. Sadly, Angeal tries to keep that sword in perfect condition, only to have it worn out by Cloud. Genesis: Genesis grew up with Angeal in Banora, some random village that bears no importance due to an air raid. Genesis’s family was one of the wealthy landowners in the village. Genesis is obsessed with the play Loveless. Angeal, Genesis, and Sephiroth: Angeal and Genesis are childhood friends of Sephiroth’s, in fact, his only friends. All of them enlisted in SOLDIER and as time passed, Sephiroth became the legendary hero of Shinra and the world’s best SOLDIER. One of my favorite scenes is where Genesis and Sephiroth do a practice battle on the ‘Sister Ray,’ Junon’s cannon, although the training room generates the environment. Zack Fair: The game’s main protagonist. You start out as a 2nd Class SOLDIER but very shortly after, you are promoted to 1st Class. Zack’s ultimate dream is to become a hero and by achieving 1st Class, he is one step closer to reaching his goal. Zack also reminds me a lot of Tidus, voice and personality. Hyper, naïve, and inexperienced, Zack quickly learns the meaning of being a SOLDIER. Zack is the comical, energetic type. Ironically, he is the complete opposite of Cloud. Lazard: The director of SOLDIER. Not to be confused with Rufus, the later President of Shinra, although their roles are pretty much the same. Lazard also slightly resembles Rufus so don’t get confused. Use a Remedy if you have to. Hojo and Hollander: Two rivaling scientists, one of which you already know. Hollander lost out on the rat race in the science department and seeks revenge. I can’t believe I had to protect Hojo for a good five minutes. He has caused enough damage to make me want to kill him now before he has the chance to make things worse. Cissnei: One of the Turks, along with Tseng (pronounced Song), Reno and Rude. I believe Elena is newer and is not introduced until Final Fantasy VII. Cloud: When you first meet Cloud, he is just a rookie Shinra Infantryman. There is a sense of closeness between Zack and Cloud right from the start. Cloud eventually joins SOLDIER, with Zack being there to welcome him as Angeal was to Zack. It is ironic that Tseng and Cloud embark on a mission together knowing that they eventually fight. Aerith: The last Ancient in the world. (We knew that). She is always being closely watched by the Turks...as well as Zack. Angeal Story: Shinra is at war with Wutai. Yes. Wutai. Before Lazard decides to deploy Zack into the fray, Genesis is reported missing at the battlefront of Wutai. Several others are reported missing; mostly 2nd and 3rd class SOLDIERS. Angeal tags along with Zack and watches over him. Lazard secretly tags along to evaluate Zack as a SOLDIER. After the fortress is taken, Sephiroth appears out of nowhere and obliterates Wutai soldiers…or are they… Sephiroth identifies the fallen soldiers as Genesis copies. Angeal ends up missing as well. --- Throughout the game, you get to see the legendary status of Sephiroth, where not only do the citizens of Midgar gawk at him in awe (and fear him), but so do many members of SOLDIER. For once, Sephiroth is your ally for more than just one mission. He assists you in many of the main events. Zack and Sephiroth build a temporary friendship throughout the story, but as we all know in the end, Zack is killed by Sephiroth in a flashback in Final Fantasy VII. Tseng, who is also mortally wounded by Sephiroth in Final Fantasy VII, makes a temporary bond with Sephiroth as well. Zack and Aerith develop a close relationship, which I find ironic since Zack’s memories are later imprinted into Cloud’s. Wouldn’t Cloud remember her, just not as himself? Gameplay: The Action-RPG switch was probably the best decision Square made for this game. Instead of being a turn-based RPG, you are allowed to walk around freely, and when enemies ambush you, (random battle) the battle immediately starts and immediately ends, no loading screens, no loot screens, and no EXP gain screens. The gameplay is fluid, reactive, and fast paced. If you strike your enemy in the middle of them casting a spell, most of the time, you will interrupt the spell altogether. Mind you, some skills are uninterruptible. To be realistic, enemies can also do the same thing back. [ ] allows you to dodge an attack or spell, but some things can’t be avoided, like Bahamut’s Mega Flare. /\ is your friend and when timed correctly, you can block attacks. Also keep in mind that you have to be facing the right direction to block. When you select a target to attack, Zack will automatically charge at the enemy so there is no need to move him around unless you want to retarget a different target. Materia is reintroduced in Crisis Core and it functions basically the same way as Final Fantasy VII. When you first begin the game, you are allowed 4 materia slots and two accessory slots. After being promoted to 1st Class, you are allowed 6 materia slots. Keychains expand your accessory slots. You can also equip duplicates of materia and accessories, meaning that I can put on two HP Up+ and two Shinra Alphas (+40 Vit) The bonuses are added together so if I got a 20% HP increase from HP UP+ and +40 Vit from each of the Shinra Alphas, you would end up with 40% HP increase and +80 Vit. A new feature is the ability to fuse two materia together. If you complete a few of the sidequests, you are able to use items to fuse with your materia. Try new combinations and permutations to find out if your fused materia will combine into a new materia. The higher the level materia, the more likely you will get a new materia. It is easy to Master materia, so when you are done with one, switch it with a lower level materia of the same type. If you have Cure completely mastered, buy another Cure materia and equip it. You will eventually have two mastered Cure materia ready for fusion with other materia. SP is required for fusion and SP also functions in spinning the DMW. What is the DMW? Read on. The DMW is a slots type wheel that spins as you fight. Character’s faces, along with corresponding numbers will spin on the wheel. The wheel will center itself and show you what combination you get. This is for the most part, completely random, besides when it says the DMW is altered due to high emotions. Those are not random and always occur at that specific point. If you get three of Sephiroth’s face, you will always perform Octaslash. Tseng has an air strike. Cissnei’s gives you a heavenly limit break status that raises the probability of DMW events and for an elapsed time, you always do critical damage. You can always attack an enemy from behind and get a critical hit also. If you get three of Aerith’s you will heal yourself and cure any status ailment. The numbers are a little harder to understand but they correspond to the materia that you are holding, and in what slot they are. Let’s say I have Cure in Slot 1, Regen in Slot 2, Thunder in Slot 3, and Esuna in Slot 4. If you roll any three numbers and two of them are 1s, then you level up once in Slot 1, or Cure. If you get two 2s, then you level up in Slot 2, Regen. However, if you get three 2s, you level up twice in that materia. (I’m pretty sure my Steal materia when up twice when I rolled that) If you get three 7s, Zack gains a level. Just remember that mastered materia don’t gain levels so you better hope the wheel lands on a non-mastered materia. Take that into account with the character’s pictures. If you happen to get three Sephiroths and three 7s, you gain a level AND perform Octaslash! If you get three 6s and three Tsengs, you level up whatever materia is in Slot 6 and call in an air strike. Just remember that the DMW is random, and no matter how many enemies you kill, you can’t gain a level that way. You have to roll 777 on the DMW to gain levels. This being a random event with random numbers, it is possible to level three times in less than 12 seconds. Other times, you may not level at all for a long time. The DMW spins faster the more SP is gained from monsters so replaying the training mission over and over is not a good idea. With harder enemies, the more likely you will get a DMW event. The events are also triggered by low level materia, since those need to level. The DMW may sometimes overload your HP/MP/AP, filling them way past their maximum value. It is possible to have over twice the maximum and that stays for as long as you are alive. I rarely use recovery items because my HP is always over the max and I can complete several missions just off of that. The DMW can also trigger Summons, which is also random, and you must have at least one Summon for it to work. Same rules apply except the faces change. The numbers still apply to the same rules. The way missions are laid out is quite simple. They’re sorted into categories and are all sidequests. You can partake in any of the missions if you wish, but please keep in mind what difficulty it says on the right. These missions are vital to growth and gathering very nice items and materia. The only missions that are technically mandatory are the main storyline’s. My rule of thumb is, if it says Hard, then be sure to complete all of the easy and normal quests first, sometimes the hard mission will readjust to a normal one, because you may have leveled up once, twice or three times in one of the previous missions. Made in Hong Kong Presentation: 10/10. Menus are done with perfection. None of them get in the way while battling and they’re relatively easy to maneuver with while destroying a boss. Everything is in ‘active’ time where menu commands don’t pause time while you trudge through them. There is no pause, and no trudging. Graphics: 10/10. God of War: Chains of Olympus looks like an amateur’s work after seeing these graphics. The videos are just amazing and even if Ifrit’s Hellfire is destroying you, you are still going to watch it. Sound: 9.5/10. I thought that the heavy metal was unfitting, but the classic battle, fanfare, and Aerith’s theme (just to name a few) brought back a lot of fond memories. Gameplay: 10/10. The game mechanics are near perfect, although there are some parts that you are helpless because the timing is just right between the enemies’ attacks that you can’t recover from. This is an issue with all action-RPG/beat ‘em up games. I am a number guy. I like seeing numbers. I like knowing exactly how much damage I am dealing and how much I am sustaining. I don’t like health bars that don’t have any numbers to them. This is the perfect fix for me since it has everything I wanted. At least I can recover health, unlike God of War: Chains of Olympus. Lasting Appeal: 10/10. Doing every sidequest, getting every materia mastered and to its fullest potential makes this game worth playing again, even on harder difficulties. Total: 49.5/50. Average: 9.9. Overall: 10. Rating: 5 stars. Final Comments: If you were allowed only one PSP game to play, this would definitely be the one. Although I think this game is reserved for only Final Fantasy VII fans, God of War: Chains of Olympus is reserved for God of War fans. Although the gameplay is rather repetitive, they give you plenty of savepoints so if you do get bored of side missions or the main storyline, you can quit for a little bit and resume play later. The repetitiveness in God of War: Chains of Olympus usually resulted in lost progress since there were no savepoints for quite awhile. The only bad part is that Zack dies.
Ah, it's just neverending competition between you and Dmac aye? Nice review. Oh, and 49.5 aye? My brother has this. Aeris!!
well i loved this game an was addictive but gav up cause one day i was playin on psp, decided to save it like normal then my bloody save curropted cause of psp crashing
this game is probably the only game that i have evered played on any system that i liked so much, taht i actually played it again and beat the game again, and it's s fun, but then the seond time gets really easy, your like superman if you played the second time.
don't play new game+, play it on hard. it is nice being able to smoke that behemoth at the beginning of the game during hojo's experiments. the first time i almost did, but i needed more levels and better materia.
