For the Final Fantasy 7 fan, there is no question about whether or not they should purchase Crisis Core. Even if the game was a hastily assembled, inferior mess, it would still be have to be added to the collection.

Luckily, it isn’t that bad. It isn’t great, but it’s not bad. Yes, it does suffer from a few problems, problems that have become endemic to Square Enix, and all their current titles. Specifically, an over reliance on extended and unskippable cut-scenes that do not always advance the plot, and a battle system that requires little more than hitting X repeatedly, and occasionally remembering to cure. You have more options than this, but enemy intelligence is lacking, and the fights themselves so easy, that you don’t need to avail yourself of any of the more advanced combat options. In addition to that, most of the more powerful options (limit breaks, summons etc) are controlled by the DMV, essentially a slot machine. The result is wasting powerful moves on weak enemies, or at the end of battles. This random element is very frustrating and removes any sense of strategy. It’s also somewhat jarring to keep having control pulled away from you without warning.

Having said that, the game itself has been beautifully put together. The music is memorable, and re-uses tracks from the original soundtrack. The graphics are stunning, as you would expect. The character designs have not gone the way of many future Final Fantasy games, with too many random belts and fur, but remain iconic and clear. The new characters, such as Angeal, feel appropriate to the universe, whilst a true sense of nostalgia is created by using key scenes and locations from the original game. Using the ‘train’ opening scene was a nice touch, and it was great to see the Shin-Ra building redone with up-to-date graphics. Of course, all these elements will be lost on anyone who didn’t play the original, but I don’t think that will be too disruptive to the overall experience. In addition, the guest appearances from Cloud, Aerith, Yuffie etc don’t feel too forced or intrusive.

The story itself is on a smaller scale than Final Fantasy 7. Focused on just a few relationships, there is none of the sprawling epic storyline that worked so well in the original, and then ruined Advent Children so thoroughly. Equally missing is the adult strand of humour that permeated the original. There is a welcome touch of black comedy though, that makes it feel much more a part of the FF7 canon than Dirge of Cerebus ever did.

Locations are limited, and feel linear or empty. Compared to the truly incredible depth and detail of FF7, this is disappointing - but in fairness it does permit the ‘pick-up and put-down’ mission style that is appropriate for the PSP. There is a lot of repetitiveness in mission style (go here, fight a boss, win materia) but again, it lends itself to bite-size playing. None the less, since part of the appeal of FF7 was the range of the world map, and the sheer freedom you had in terms of where you went and what you did, the linear play of Crisis Core does make it feel like a step back instead of forward.

A nice touch is the use of cell phones and email. The FF7 world has always been an odd mixture of technology and magic, of sci-fi and fantasy. The emails themselves are nicely integrated, and pretty well written. They provide a lot of random information, and add the depth of background that is lacking in the location design.

The game does have a sense of the tragic to it. Anyone who remembers FF7 will know the fate of Zack, and the inevitability of much of what happens. Zack himself is a personable character, a touch on the arrogant side but genuinely nice. There’s no Hollywood happy ending here, and the final scenes are heartfelt.

Overall, it is easy to recommend this games to fans of the original, or fans of Final Fantasy in general. Those who have been turned off by Square’s flaws in the past, however, will probably need to skip this one too.The biggest criticisms are with the battle system and the linear play, but the overall presentation, and simple but effective story do somewhat make up for this. It’s better than expected, but not as good as we hoped - like I said, not great, but not bad.

This entry was posted on Thursday, July 17th, 2008 at 3:03 pm and is filed under Reviews, Fandom, PSP. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.