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shoujoboy's Final Fantasy VII: Crisis Core Game Review

Final Fantasy VII: Crisis Core

Final Fantasy VII: Crisis Core game Review

Story & Playability

There aren't a whole lot of things out there that really evoke that fanboy reaction in me. Those shows/games that make me almost want to chop off the heads of those who bad mouth it. Well Final Fantasy VII is one of them. Yes, I am one of those that's convinced it is the best game ever, so much so that I have beaten it 41 times beginning to end. I know what items you steal from what enemies. I've beaten the game in 18 hours. I've beaten Emerald Weapon with default equipment. I even have every character with perfect stats and mastered materia for all of them. I've played the hell out of FFVII. Now we have a prequel in Crisis Core. Fanboy gene activate... well kinda.

Zack Fair is a character that had only minimal parts in Final Fantasy VII. He only appeared in Cloud's flashbacks and/or his mistaken memories. Now we go back seven years before FFVII happened to see what kind of man Zack was and why he played a bigger part in the overall FFVII story.

Zack is a member of SOLDIER, the elite unit of Shinra. They accomplish various missions to keep peace or just strengthen Midgar. Along with Zack is is mentor Angeal, his friend Genesis and the hero of all heroes, Sephiroth. While Zack is simply trying to achieve his dream of being a hero and rise in the ranks of SOLDIER, he is also faced with betrayal by Genesis, the confusion of his mentor and the slow change to the Sephiroth we all know and love/hate.

Square has been known to milk all Final Fantasy games for everything their worth. It's pretty common they make mediocre to horrible games (FF X-2 and Dirge of Cerberus I'm looking at you), but Crisis Core is actually really damn good. The story is solid from beginning to end, and many of the famous scenes from FFVII's flashbacks are now recreated in gorgeous graphics. The thing that really makes it great is that you finally get a feel for the character Zack and why Cloud had such an admiration for him. Not only that, but you get to see a different side of Sephiroth and see his change into the evil villain of FFVII. You also get the origins of the Jenova Project, the early doings of Hojo, an in depth relationship with Aerith and much more that really tightens the whole FFVII plot.

This being said, if you are playing Crisis Core without having never played FFVII, you are really going to miss out on a lot of the story arcs that make this game great. The story is good on it's own, but let's be blunt, this is fanboy candy. If you loved the FFVII story, then this is going to make you squeal with joy.

Reviewer's Note: This review section says "Story and Playability" but I'm going to save all gameplay elements for the final section. This section will only be for plot.

Rating: 9

Graphics

SquareEnix continues it's contractual agreement with the devil and again proves they can make any game system look better than it should. If you aren't yet convinced the PSP is just a miniature version of the PS2, this game might change your thoughts. The first thing you are greeted with is a cutscene involving Zack running on top of a train chasing down some Wutai soldiers. It's an homage to the opening scene of the original FFVII and shows exactly how long it has been since then. There are many cutscenes throughout the game, from summons, to redone scenes from the original to brand new ones... all of which are simply stunning. Yes, even summons are cutscenes and they all look wonderful. You'll probably only watch each one once as they simply take too damn long, but still great looking.

In game graphics are equally impressive. Characters you remember are redone and much more detailed that before. From Cloud, to Tifa and Aerith to Zack, they are given an update for the 10 year anniversary. The game takes place over a 4 year period and with that comes subtle changes in character appearances, which is also paid attention to. Graphically it rivals if not exceeds FFX.

My only minor gripe is the occasional slowdown during battle. It doesn't happen very often, but in the harder missions, when things are hectic, you may find you are hitting X in tune with a slideshow.

Rating: 9

Sound

The most notable thing lacking from Crisis Core is original composer Nobuo Uematsu. Thankfully, the soul of his original score remains strong along with some new and equally impressive music. Takeharu Ishimoto takes the reigns of this soundtrack and really makes it an immersive one. The newer songs are usually rock/metal music that accompanies battles and certain cutscenes. But it's the newly tweaked originals that really make the make the soundtrack what it is. From the epic boss battle, to Sephiroth and Aerith themes, we get reworked songs that'll make you have flashbacks. It may only be minor tweaks like adding stronger guitar to the boss music, but nonetheless, that emotion you felt when playing FFVII will come running to the surface.


Voice acting is sadly only playable in English... wait I'm not going to complain about that this time. The voice acting is fantastic from top to bottom. For those who enjoy English dubbed anime, there are well known voice actors throughout, IE Crispin Freeman and Carrie Savage. The main role of Zack is played by Rick Gomez. Zack is all about being that bleeding heart hero with a heart of gold. He's caring and motivated to be the best. Rick makes you understand Zack and makes you appreciate what he is doing through spot-on voice work.

Rating: 9

Fun

Reviewer's note: Beings that I consider myself a Final Fantasy master, and I know that Square loves to give out extras when you play higher difficulty, I decided to play this game on hard during my first try. My review will be based on that experience. Please keep your comments of "I played hard and it was easy" to yourself. You are a liar! Also, this section will be rather lengthy. There is a lot to cover that all has a large part to do with the overall score. Bear with me.

The DMW: The Digital Mind Wave, or DMW, is your friend and your enemy. You live and die by this slot machine of death. During any combat there will be a slot machine spinning in the top-left corner. There are pictures and numbers on it that determine many things like stat boosts during battles or reducing MP cost to 0, so on and so forth. If the left and right sides match the characters picture, then you go into a limit verge screen where you watch to see what happens next. If all three characters match, you execute a limit break. If two numbers match, a materia levels up. If there's three 7's, you level up. It's not that complicated... BUT IT SUCKS! Everything in this game is random. Let's say you get destroyed by a boss. You know that if you level up a few times or maybe level your HP materia up, you should be fine. Normal RPG's you'd find a place to grind out a few levels and go on your merry way. Crisis Core makes you get down on your knees and pray to the video game gods to grant you a level up. So you'll find yourself going into a battle and running around in circles hoping the slot machine will show you some kind of mercy. When you finally have a level or two, you'll go back to the boss and once again be in dire straights praying for a limit break to save you. But again, it's random... so you'll probably die. Don't get me wrong, the DMW can be cool. But when EVERYTHING about your character depends on it, it really starts to suck.

Materia Fusion: Unlike the original FFVII, your materia don't level up into better things. Instead of the Fire materia becoming Fire2 and Fire3, it instead just levels up all the way to 5. After you have a level 5 Fire, you may be able to fuse it into a level 1 Fira. Problem is, there are so many materia in this game, getting exactly what you want is damn near impossible without a PhD in materia fusion or a strategy guide in front of your face. Just looking to see what it takes to make an Ultima materia, I found myself confused beyond belief. It takes so many steps and so many equations come into play. And beings that you have to again pray the DMW grants your materia a level up, you end up having crap materia for a long... long time. You'll feel awesome have a Blizzaga early in the game, but then find yourself in a corner when you need better materia.

Battle/Side Quests: Battle is almost like a dumbed down version of Kingdom Hearts. You run around and hit your X button to attack, and use your R & L triggers to cycle through spells and weapons. The majority of battle will consist of hitting X a whole lot and following with square to roll out of the way of attacks. It's simple and it works, if not a bit monotonous. Side quests consist of missions that you are given via your menu screen. EVERY mission is essentially the same. They place you somewhere in a cave, a desert or a building and you have to go from there and find the enemy. Kill everything within the random battles and kill the enemy at the end, claim your prize... the end. Prepare to see the same locales over and over again.

Difficulty: Most online reviews speak of how easy this game is. I've seen one that said "just hit X and watch TV". While that may be true on Normal... THERE IS NO TRUTH IN THAT IN HARD! This game becomes, dare I say, the hardest game in creation. Let's put it this way, there's an accessory you need to allow your HP to go over 9999. To get that accessory, you have to beat 5 enemies. Each of those enemies can hit you for around 14000. Meaning, 1 hit and you are dead. Death spells never miss, random battle enemies can one hit kill you and bosses will come out of nowhere and destroy you BEFORE YOU GET A CHANCE TO SAVE. Point is, this game is so damn hard (on hard) it really ceases to become fun. We're it not for the extreme difficulty, this section would likely score 2 pts higher. So feel free to call this section a '7'.

Battle Frequency: Battles in this game are far too frequent. If you just try running from point A to point B, you will fight constantly. There are spots where battles will always kick off, so eventually you'll find yourself hugging the walls trying to stay in battle dead zones. There will be times when you will finish a battle and take 1 step and be greeted by another.

Conclusion: Most of what you have read above is complaints. Don't get me wrong, the game is fun with everything added up. But at the same time it's like that abusive husband who says he loves you, and then punches you in the mouth for interrupting his football game. You'll be laughing and having a good time, enjoying the fantastic story and then find yourself demoralized and angry because lady luck has abandoned you. Play it for the story, the great graphics and just the nostalgia of enjoying the prequel to one of the greatest games of all time. Just don't expect it to be fun all the time...

But DO expect one hell of an ending.

Rating: 5

Final Verdict

7.6667 (good)

Reviewed by shoujoboy, Apr 14, 2008

Comments

  1. BossMac Apr 14, 2008

    It is a well known fact that US versions of Final Fantasy games are toned down. You don't get tutorials and you start out in Hard Mode in JP versions of every Final Fantasy game. If you don't believe try it for yourself. I ain't saying its hard 'cause you can't understand it, it's hard because the game is hard.

    You have a few typos, sho.

    Also, I expected shoujoboy be the first to comment on every review but looks like he was absent when this one was present. o_0

  2. ArtificialRaindrop Apr 14, 2008

    Quote by jakulitoAlso, I expected shoujoboy be the first to comment on every review but looks like he was absent when this one was present. o_0

    That's because shoujoboy wrote the review ^_^'

    Anyhow, after reading the review I'm probably feeling even less inclined to play the game than I was when I read the back of the box in the store... I don't hate Final Fantasy VII by any means- it was my first rpg, and a classic to me- but at the same time looking at the bigger picture of games that I own it's probably not even one of my favorites. That combined with my natural tendency to despise things that have large hyping-fanbases.... Yeah, not a good combination.

    When I look at games I look for good storylines and fun gameplay, and sometimes one will be so heavy in one of those areas that even though it's lacking in the other I still find it fun. FFX-2 almost hit that mark because the gameplay was so much fun, but just about everything I have loses to my Tri-Ace games minus my survival horror collection (and FFX-2 is short! sometimes I don't care to spend a month playing a game...) :sweat: And honestly, the randomness of Crisis Core sounds terrible. Things that require skill- great. You can apply then what I call the "suck-less-strategy", which generally works for harder games. Hard games that require skill=fun! Hard games that require pure luck= unnecessary headache >_<

    Quote by shoujoboyCrisis Core makes you get down on your knees and pray to the video game gods to grant you a level up.

    Hmm... I remember that feeling. I have it everytime I play a Tri-Ace Star Ocean game on a harder difficulty and go after optional bosses... If you want to try a genuinely difficult (but fairly so) game, try Star Ocean 3 on 4-d mode. There's nothing quite like it...

    Quote by shoujoboyDifficulty: Most online reviews speak of how easy this game is. I've seen one that said "just hit X and watch TV". While that may be true on Normal... THERE IS NO TRUTH IN THAT IN HARD! This game becomes, dare I say, the hardest game in creation.

    While I doubt severely that it's the hardest game in creation (see my above statement^), it does get irritating when people when people say "It's sooooooo easy" when they are playing on normal. Yeah... It's harder on hard mode. Gee, I wonder why they called it that?

    Well, before I get off ranting... Thank you for the very detailed description of the battle-system. Far too often people don't give enough of a look at how it works, and battle-systems can really make or break a game.

    By the way you wrote the review you seem to be reasonable about it even though you admit to being a FFVII Fanboy: Do you think that someone who likes FVII but isn't obsessed with it could like this game? If so I will probably give this one a chance when it comes down in price. Or is it like Advent Children and really only good to those in-love with the series? Part of me really wants to play this prequel to FFVII, but I'm very afraid of it being so glamorized by the fanbase that it won't really stay to true to the essence of the original game...

  3. shoujoboy Apr 14, 2008

    To prove my point about Materia Fusion, here is a Penny Arcade comic agreeing:

    http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2008/4/14/

  4. yhakoo Apr 15, 2008

    Quote by ArtificialRaindrop Part of me really wants to play this prequel to FFVII, but I'm very afraid of it being so glamorized by the fanbase that it won't really stay to true to the essence of the original game...


    I agree, I think I still prefer the old "turn style combat" but I just might give this a try when the price drops.

    Before your review I did not really even consider buying it, very well writen and descriptive.

  5. MystikalLam Apr 21, 2008

    " But DO expect one hell of an ending."

    Oh man, tell me about it, I took my time and just beat it today, CRIED! Freakin infantrymen with cold, cold hearts! But overall, I think you did a very good job on your review. I agree that some parts are certainly very annoying, but it is still a good game!

  6. aikur Feb 02, 2009

    it only hard on hard if you play on easy (US game) it really easy
    i love this game
    Zack rocks and is way cooler than Cloud

  7. ryanwho Mar 29, 2009

    This game is a joke.

  8. pigmypuff Jun 03, 2009

    luv the guys

  9. pappo1 Jun 09, 2009

    ff7 the best game, excellent review

  10. yuyuppi Jun 17, 2009

    fantastic chara design

  11. pmgbapm Jun 23, 2009

    it is too difficult to play

  12. ResonantSoul Jul 23, 2009

    eh, ff.

  13. lordryo Jul 28, 2009

    Good review.

  14. Onlyrockman Aug 01, 2009

    As for me the gameplay is not so great, mostly I played it just to watch the cut scenes: they're awesome!

  15. SchRita Aug 23, 2009

    Thanks for the review!

  16. nainoi Sep 12, 2009

    nice character design.

  17. david2331 Sep 20, 2009

    I loved everything about this game!

  18. SchRita Oct 31, 2009

    Thanks for the review!

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