Crisis CoreJuly 17th, 2008 by Suzie
Del.icio.us | Digg | Technorati | Reddit | Stumble Upon
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.
July 18th, 2008 at 8:08 am
Being someone who (still!) hasn’t finished Final Fantasy 7, will there be much in this game I won’t get story-wise?
July 18th, 2008 at 8:16 am
@Jon - you will understand the plot easily enough, the only thing is that it might spoil some of the surprises in FF7 for you!
July 19th, 2008 at 3:38 am
Hmm, might be worth slogging my way through the remainder of FF7 then, seeing as I’ve heard it has one of the best stories of any game.
Thanks!
July 19th, 2008 at 8:29 am
I have not played a Final Fantasy game since the NES but I have to admit, I get tempted.. I just never pick one up cause 1) THERE ARE SO MANY WHICH ONE DO I START WITH?! and 2) I always feel that I won’t understand the story since there are so many memorable characters.
People constantly tell me that every story is different and to start with FF7 but idk.. I’m still hesitant =P
August 30th, 2008 at 11:50 am
Suzie I can’t help but feel as if you’re disappointed with this game…
Can I just say Final Fantasy VII was my childhood game and favourite RPG of all time and you can ask Jon who will back me up on this. I worship the storyline and world of FF VII. I went into Crisis Core with an open mind and when I finished it I thought it was probably the best game on PSP, but that’s to me, a FF7 fan. Basically I thought, if you’re a fan of Final Fantasy VII, you’ll absolutely love it because only then could you appreciate all the little subtle things like the Nibelhelm incident and just the slums of Midgar being put onto the PSP screen. Final Fantasy VII for me would be on my top 3 favourite games of all time but for someone like you I hoped you would shower daises, rainbows and colourful phrases on how fantastic it is!
I too did a mini-review of Crisis Core and I actually picked up on the exact same things as you did, the linearity and the combat. However I picked up on these things as its small flaws whilst at the same time saying the story and how well it fit in as a prequel was dominant as to why in my opinion it’s a fantastic game.
Ah I dunno, I think you’re review is very fair and it gives a clear insight into Crisis Core to the public. As I type these final few sentences I realise the reason I’m commenting is because I hoped you, as a FF7 fan, would be more biased :). It’s true everything you said that’s bad about the game is bad but personally for me I’ve never had more satisfaction out of getting story from a prequel/sequel. That statement is very bold, I’m a huge metal gear fan and I’ve played through Metal Gear Solid 4 which wrapped up 20 years worth of story. All my final fantasy fanboy feelings are really coming out now huh?
Also for RiotMonster - I would recommend Final Fantasy X or XII to start off with if you haven’t played any. If you want to get a bit more hardcore I’d say try 7 and perhaps 8.
Finally, Suzie, nice use of pictures. Really brings out the detail put into characters of old i.e. Sephiroth and Cloud. Although I would have included one with Angeal, Genesis and Sephiroth epically fighting inside the Soldier Class B training chamber. You know the cutscene I’m talking about ;).
August 30th, 2008 at 12:13 pm
@James - Final Fantasy 7 was my favourite game ever - and I don’t think anything I’ve played since has touched it in terms of storyline and character. Crisis Core fills in the gaps, but to me it never hit the high note that FF7 did. It’s wonderful seeing the up-to-date graphics, and the opening did bring on a nostalgia fest…. but as I played through I felt some of the mystique of FF7 back-story disappear. It simply wasn’t complex enough for me, and it swapped out genuinely fascinating characters (Heidegger, Scarlet) in favour of more destructo-pretty boys (yes Genesis, I’m looking at you).
I do think they did a wonderful job with Sephiroth, Zack and Angeal. But it lacked… some magical FF7 essence.
August 30th, 2008 at 3:18 pm
That pleased me to read
It really did lol
Thing is when I read your review I got the feeling you didn’t really enjoy Crisis Core because you picked up on the linearity and the combat so I assumed those were the reasons you couldn’t enjoy it a lot. When you said that you didn’t think it was complex enough I completely agree and I’m glad you mentioned Scarlett because during my play through I actually searched the Shinra building in hope I could find and talk to her. And yeah Genesis is a bit of a douche, he looks JRPG enough but the whole poem reading before battles annoyed me.
On the other hand though I don’t think Crisis Core was ever meant to match FF7. As you said, the beautiful graphics and the nostalgia in cutscenes I think was all it was meant to achieve and that in a way is a huge success for FF7 lovers especially. It’s true it doesn’t have that magical feel to it that FF7 did but that’s probably why FF7 is unique. Let’s just be grateful Square Enix don’t throw another Dirge of Cerberus at us because that’s what I based this FF7 spin off on and I welcomed it with open arms.
Off topic but I’m glad Jon recommended this blog to me. Nice posts and very insightful because I truly wish sometimes the girls I knew could be decent competition for me on Call of Duty..*sigh*
August 30th, 2008 at 4:53 pm
I recently completed this game and I think it is the best and most involving game for psp so far. I do understand what Suzie is saying about it not having the magic of VII, but thats like saying “this Ferrari really isn’t as good as an Aston Martin “. I found that i was getting (probably a bit too) attached to the game very quickly and thought that Zack was an extremely likeable if slightly simple character. And i for one thought that Genesis wasn’t TOO bad as a villain, he had semi-reasonable motives (from a crazy guys point of view) and a bad ass sword, thats good enough for me. Angeal, on the other hand, i found quite irritating with his only reasoning for being a bad guy was that he was made in a lab, therefore a monster. What if Dante decided he had to be a bad guy because he was part monster? Bad things, that’s what.
As for you “Jon”: hurry up and complete it already so we can watch advent children!
Very much enjoying this blog.
x