Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII

In 1997, Squaresoft took the world by storm with the release of Final Fantasy VII. It was the first Final Fantasy game to achieve wide spread popularity. It's success was outstanding, selling close to 10 million copies, and it still remains the best selling Final Fantasy game. Due to its popularity, Square Enix responded by creating the Compilation of Final Fantasy VII; a series of prequels and sequels to the game that made them a world wide phenomena. For the most part, each new title was fairly average; it became apparent that games like Dirge of Cerberus was merely cash ins. This however changed with the release of Crisis Core, arguably the best of spinoffs.

Crisis Core unlike th original Final Fantasy VII, is an action RPG. The main lead is Zack Fair, the 1st Class Soldier who Cloud thought he was. The game focuses on his back story; from his early days as a 2nd Class Soldier to the Nibelheim incident with Sephiroth and it's aftermath. The story for the most part is fairly interesting. The beginning is fairly slow, but it is helped by the presence of Zack Fair, who is an extremely likable lead. Zack, unlike previous leads like Zidane or Vaan, is able to pull off the nice guy character. In many ways, he's similar to Sora of Kingdom Hearts, kind hearted if somewhat gullible. Because of this, you easily become attached to him throughout multiple moments of the games. Crisis Core also includes numeros nostalgia inducing moments. Various characters such as Yuffie and Tifa make reappearances in the game. The new characters introduced however, are rather uninteresting. With the exception of Angeal and possibly Cessily (although she too, have her dull moments), the new introductions are rather bland and two-dimension. The primary antagonist in this game is Genesis. Compared to various villains in the Final Fantasy game, he really lacks the charisma that sets him apart and makes him unique. While the story does get stronger about 1/4 into the game, my major complaint is nothing is truly added to the main story of Final Fantasy 7. By this I mean, it doesn't help to add on to already established characters like Cloud, Aerith, and Sephiroth.

The gameplay is fairly good. Random battles sadly makes its return to the franchise. Similar to Kingdom Hearts, the gameplay suffers from being simplistic at times. If you get bored, you can simply get through by repeatedly pushing the X button. Like most Action RPGs you can also guard and dodge roll. If you are however, a more strategic gamer, you will be happy to know the Materia makes it's return. By equipping materia Zack can gain new abilities and stat improvements. When in need of stronger materia, you also have the ability to fuse them together, allowing you more useful materia for battle. New to the universe is the DMW (The Digital Mind Wave). The DMW is a slot reel which contains images of the various characters Zack interacts with through the course of the game. If the character line up, Zack is able to use special Limit Breaks. At the same time, the way the numbers line up also can affect gameplay. Zack can suddenly become invincible, or if you get all 7's, Zack will level up. This last feature can prove annoying later in the game, as you may end up under leveled because Leveling up is controlled by the DMW instead of the experience points.

The main story will take you no more than 20 hours to complete. Outside the story missions, you have various extra missions to complete. Being a Soldier of Shinra, you have various side missions, 200 in total. The difficulty are all different, some are relatively easy and other will make you want to snap your PSP in half. While these missions are various in style, one major complaint is the missions difficulty can be crazy sometimes, it can be labeled as normal, but once taking part, you'll find out (to your horror) that some of the monsters can kill you with one hit. They range from killing monsters, to hunting down treasure. While you may initially want to skip out on these missions, various shops (which are thankfully on the go), so you an shop while your on missions) and summons are unlocked by completing those missions. Also, since leveling up is determined by the DMW instead of experience points, it's extremely recommended to do these missions as you go through the game. Aside from these missions, there'll also be multiple side quest for you to complete in places like Midgar and Niblheim. Overall, there's about ten hours of extra so you'll be pretty satisfied with this game.

With an engrossing story, a solid combat system, two modes of difficulties, and a good amount of extras, you'll be playing this game for a while. I highly recommend this game to any RPG fan looking for a good game to play on the PSP.