Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII is a prequel to the original Final Fantasy VII game that
came out for the PS1. The story follows Zack, a SOLDIER 2nd who wants
to become a 1st and a hero. Zack will meet along the way many familiar
faces that FFVII fans will recognize, like Sephiroth, Aerith and Cloud.
Zack gets wrapped up in a great deal of trouble surrounding a rogue
SOLDIER named Genesis and the hidden experiments of the Shinra
Corporation. The story in Crisis Core, grabs you and never lets go. You
want to know what will happen next and what is really going on. And
even if you already know what happens at the end of this game, it still
wont prepare you for the emotional roller coaster you will face.
The gamplay is real time action. You can controls Zack's movements with
the directional pad or the analog stick. Dodging can be done by hitting
the square button, holding the triangle button will Guard. Tapping the
X button will make Zack attack. However, it is also the same button for
using materia. The L and R buttons can be tapped to scroll through the
basic attack , equipped materia and items. It can be a little awkward
at the beginning to get use to it but soon it is easy to remember how
many taps it is to get to the desired attack and you wont even have to
look at the bar.
During battles a slot machine type icon will be spinning in the upper
left hand corner. This is the Digital Mind Wave (DMW). It will give you
abilities during the battle, give stat bonuses, produce Limit Breaks,
level up materia and allow Zack to level up. The limit breaks are tied
to the Character pictures that spin, get 3 pictures of one character
and you will use the limit break associated to that character (ie.
triple Cloud pictures will produce the Meteor Shots limit break).
Triple 7's will level Zack up. If you get 2 of any number between 1 and
6 it will level up the materia in that slot in your equipment menu.
Getting a combination of 7's (not triple) will give you bonuses like no
costs for casting magic or attack materia, barriers against magic and
physical damage, ect. The DMW is very important because it is the only
way Zack and your materia can level up. To make sure it always keeps
spinning, never loose all of you SP and if Curse is cast on Zack,
remove it with a Remedy.
Materia gives you magic attacks and stronger physical attacks then just
your basic sword attack. Most materia can be found through the
extensive 300 missions available. Some, like the DMW materia (which
boosts the chances of a certain limit break occurring), can be bought
at stores. What is really important, is the Materia Fusion ability that
will be unlocked while going through the story. Fusion allows you to
combine materia to create stronger attacks or even creating a new,
stronger materia. Stat bonuses can be gained by combining materia.
Items can be used in the fusion to boost the stats even higher. Fusion
is the only way to max out Zack stats. I suggest putting the stat boost
you want into a magic or physical attack materia instead of increasing
the Hit Point, Attack, ect, materia because they will take up the
precious 6 slots that are available. This allows you to max Zack's
stats while still having Curaga for healing and other strong attacks to
battle with. Expect to spend a bit of time on Fusion if you want to max
everything.
I really dont need to say much about the graphics. They are the finest
ever on the PSP. Not just the cut scenes either, the in-game is
beautiful. It is has very little loading at all. The game moves from
exploring, to battles, then back to exploring smoothly. The first time
in battle, I was expecting the game to need to load and just sat there
for a second before I realized I was already able to continue.
Crisis Core allows people to play the game the
way they want to. If you want to go through the story but dont want to
play for hours on end, you can skip the majority of the side missions.
Youll get about 15-20 hours of gameplay time by doing this. However if
you want to do all the missions, battle Minerva, max Zack's stats and
do everything you possibly can, you can expect 50+ hours from this
game. Personally, for me to get 100% completion, it took me 66 hours.
Any Final Fantasy fan should not miss this game and neither should
anyone who loves RPGs, even if they have never played a Final Fantasy
game before. The story alone is worth it, not to mention the fact that
Crisis Core has the most beautiful ending of any game I have ever
played. This game will keep you entertained for hours and you may not
be able to put down your PSP. A more than worthy addition to the FFVII
saga.
