Final Fantasy Vii Crisis Core – REVIEW

Cloud and the boys are back with a BANG… or more of a nuclear explosion by all accounts.

Continuing my quest for the best psp game to take abroad, I had a crack at this fabled title. I purchased this last year whilst on holiday but for some reason I stopped playing it. To be frank I have NO idea why.

Story

Based on what’s considered the best storyline of all time, Crisis Core follows Soldier First Class Zack through the events that led up to FF Vii. For those who remember FF Vii you may remember having to find a bonus cut scene that delved into Cloud’s memory to show these events. For those of you who never found those magical memories the story is told here. I wont give too much away because quite frankly I believe you will want to see it for yourselves. Soldier appears to be fighting a war with people trying to stop their energy consumption. The soldier division has been deployed to stop them and Zack works his way to Soldier First Class to stop them. You work alongside some new characters such as Angeal (Zack’s mentor) and Genesis. Yet there are familiar characters such as Sephiroth, Cloud and Tifa. The story is gripping, truly gripping.

This is not going to sound fair but 10/10. Genuinely.

Gameplay

Crisis Core features a different type of gameplay. It is not like the traditional Final Fantasy’s with turn based combat, yet it is not like the kingdom hearts series either. You can button bash if you wish yet attacks need to be properly carried out in order to do anything. The modulating system is also very interesting. Occasionally a device known as the DMV with appear on the screen with what looks like slot machine reels. If a row of 3 of the same character appears, you will carry out their signature move. For example 3 Sephiroth’s mean you carry out an omnislash attack. There are also numbers alongside the characters faces. These determine the power level of your attack eg. 7,7,7 normally created a level 5 attack. The attacks are not all random sword slashes either. There are a variety of attacks at your disposal and magic. They can all be linked to a convenient action bar in which you select the attack by using the L and R buttons. There is nothing wrong with the gameplay in my opinion. I mean its not gonna’ change your gaming life but its solid, simple yet effective.

They earned themselves 7/10.

Graphics

What do you expect? It’s a Final Fantasy game! Graphics are out of this world as you would expect. It’s like ps2 graphics on the psp! Then of course there’s the AMAZING cut scenes. All you have to do is look at the pictures included in this review to see that. The only improvement that could be made is with certain characters like Tseng. If a character is not essentially key like the Turks they all look a bit flat faced to be honest. Whereas people such as Genesis, Sephiroth and Zack have beautifully created graphics.

Overall here 9/10.

Soundtrack

A good soundtrack by all accounts. Appropriate music used at the exact right times for the story. The music in this one really helps to set the scene whether it be creating tension, happiness or despair. It consists of traditional Final Fantasy jingles and orchestral pieces for key moments. There’s even Sephiroth’s theme in there.

I’ll give it a 7/10.

Overall

Very enjoyable. A game worth playing by all. Whether you played 7 or not I think you’ll enjoy it and for those who watched Advent Children you will notice some beautiful clips passed over to the game 🙂 On my psp games to take abroad it does well. It’s kinda heavy in some respects but a lot of fun.

Good

• Gameplay
• Controls
• Graphics
• Sound
• AWSOME PWNAGE
• Beautifully crafted storyline

Bad

• Flat faced charactes
• NO MORE FF Vii SPINOFFS 🙁