I think it should go without saying that Final Fantasy VII was a huge hit when it was released back in 1997. It was a critical and commercial success, selling over 9 million copies worldwide. While Square would make more mainline entries in the franchise, they would also make Final Fantasy VII into a sub-series. It had a prequel mobile game (Before Crisis), a sequel movie (Advent Children), and a sequel game (Dirge of Cerberus), to name a few. That's not to say that this decision is not justified. The cast of characters are not just iconic, but the world around them and the lore are just fascinating enough to expand upon.
With the Final Fantasy VII Remake around the corner, I think it's fitting that I cover the PSP prequel game, Crisis Core, released ten years after the original. I actually have a bit of a history with Crisis Core. I have a friend who loves this game so much, and because of that, he introduced me to the Final Fantasy series in general. Now that I finally played it, I can say that it's easily one of my favorite PSP games, but not without some shortcomings.
A common problem with prequel stories is that stuff has to occur so that the original itself can happen. This can lead to the story being predictable and lacking in tension altogether. With that said, while Crisis Core does have moments like these, it nonetheless tells a gripping story about events that precede Final Fantasy VII.
The story centers around Zack Fair, a young member of SOLDIER. Many players will remember him from the few flashbacks of Final Fantasy VII, and this game expands on his backstory a lot more. He is assigned to search for a missing member named Genesis. In the meantime, he also finds himself in the middle of various conflicts like the war between Shinra and Wutai as well as meeting some familiar characters.
I love Zack as a character. He is extremely likable due to his friendly and outgoing personality. Even so, he has flaws, too, which makes him relatable. He tends to slip up sometimes during training and even missions, which gives him room to grow. He is also driven by his dream to become a hero, taking his mentor's words to embrace them.
One of my favorite things about the story is that Zack has to go up against a lot of harsh decisions while serving under SOLDIER. Whether it would be taking over a town that views Shinra as evil or having to fight against one of his own, you really feel the weight on his shoulders.
Of course, what's a character if he doesn't have a supporting cast to bounce off of? I really liked some of the friendships that he forms with other people. From what little interactions we have between them, the relationship between him and his mentor, Angeal, is pretty strong due to a great amount of snark and respect towards each other. This exchange between them pretty much sums it up:
Angeal is also the reason that Zack inherits the Buster Sword, a nice symbol of passing things on to other people.
Zack also forms a romantic relationship with Aerith and I find it to be pretty sweet. They have some pretty good chemistry with each other and Zack does shape her to become the flower girl that we were introduced to in the original. One of my favorite scenes in the game is where, without spoiling, Aerith embraces a mourning Zack, which just strengthens their relationship further.
If there is one relationship that I wish could have been expanded upon, it's between him and Cloud. I like the fact that they have common backgrounds, but there aren't many scenes that really flesh their friendship out. According to director Hajime Tabata, technical limitations prevented the developers from doing this. I still think it's a missed opportunity, especially when Cloud is the protagonist of the original game.
Now, I didn't play Crisis Core until this year, but I already knew of certain story beats, including the ending. However, finally experiencing it from beginning to end, I still managed to well up during certain tearjerking moments. The story is extremely gripping and it even recontextualizes certain moments from the original in a new light.
Referring back to my review of Final Fantasy VII, I mentioned that I didn't find Sephiroth all that interesting as a villain. Thankfully, this game alleviates this. If anything, it shows a more human side to the character. When he appears, he comes off as a decent and respectable trooper. It becomes genuinely tragic once we see his descent into madness updated into this game.
The same cannot be said with Genesis. He's an interesting foil to Sephiroth as they're both going through an identity crisis. However, the story does very little to make me care for him and his internal conflict, coming off as a boring villain. All I could get out of him is that he likes to recite his favorite play. If that doesn't get on your nerves rather quickly, then I salute you.
As for other problems in the story, other parts do feel underwritten or underdeveloped. I've already mentioned the friendship between Zack and Cloud that could have been expanded more. There is also the friendship between Zack and Cissnei (from Before Crisis). I wish there was more that I could say about her and their friendship, apart from Cissnei providing a worthwhile quote prior Zack's confrontation with another character.
Finally, there are also the call-forwards to the original game, which many prequel stories suffer from. Now, I think the intro was a nice way to introduce players to something familiar before getting to the actual meat of the story. It's just that certain moments could have been more subtle. For example, one NPC asks Zack what he should call this one bar that he is constructing. This is obviously referring to the Seventh Heaven bar, which would serve as the hideout of AVALANCHE in the original game. But good gosh, does this guy have foresight or something?
The game looks pretty good. The character models are faithful to Tetsuya Nomura's designs and the familiar characters retain some of their traits, like Aerith wearing her bow or Sephiroth's long hair. The character animations are also well-done, and I can't get enough of Zack squatting, which is one of the ways that I exercise myself. Though, the way some NPC's run look pretty funny. When you're chasing this one character in a section of the game, the way he runs doesn't look like he's fearful for his life, but worried that he's going to dirty up his shoes.
I have a problem with the environments being pretty barren and empty with not many NPC's to interact with (except in select moments, particularly the Slums). In some parts of the story, it makes sense, like when Zack visits a town in which all but one person has evacuated. I think why the game feels empty at times has to be as a result of the PSP's technical limitations. Still, I think the environments look great and when we do see familiar locations, my mind tends to go "Hey, I remember that place!"
In select moments, there are also some beautifully-made CGI cutscenes with impressive mocap performances. A highlight has to be duel between Angeal, Sephiroth, and Genesis due to the fast-paced choreography and the trio just wrecking stuff up. One minor thing to note is that the animators went out of their way to have the lip animations match both the Japanese and English dubs. Now that's dedication right there.
I have to give props to the English voice acting, because it's pretty well-done. Another reason as to why I love Zack as a character is the performance of his voice actor, Rick Gomez. Not only is his voice great, but he nails the friendly and outgoing personality of the character. He also gives a pretty nuanced performance as I'm really convinced to all the times that Zack is either angry or sad.
Some of the rest of the Advent Children voice cast reprise their roles, like Steve Burton as Cloud and George Newbern as Sephiroth and they all do a great job. Andrea Bowen also becomes the third voice for Aerith (succeeding Mandy Moore and Mena Suvari) and she's by far the best one. She captured the kind and flirty sides of her so well for those reasons alone.
The music composed by Takeharu Ishimoto is also one of the high points of Crisis Core. It's varied in terms of orchestral and rock pieces, but they never clash with one another. Each track successfully captures a mood, whether it would be tense, relaxing, lonely, or heartfelt. I also dig some of the tracks that give a Western vibe, which is fitting in some locations.
Ishimoto also successfully carried over some of Nobuo Uematsu's compositions from Final Fantasy VII for thematic consistency. There are some wonderful renditions of "Let the Battles Begin," "Aerith's Theme" (titled "A Flower Blooming in the Slums"), and "One Winged Angel" (titled "The World's Enemy"), to name a few.
Of course, there are plenty of original tracks to speak of that are just as great. A lot of the music is ambient, but highlights include the game's main theme (which could also be argued as Zack's theme), many of the battle tracks, and "The Price of Freedom," which plays in a few key moments, one being a massive tearjerker. Finally, there's the vocal song "Why" performed by Ayaka, which is a powerful way to end the game and Zack's journey.
As an RPG, it's a lot more action-oriented. Anyone familiar with the gameplay of Kingdom Hearts will feel right at home because combat is in real time. You can attack, dodge roll, block, and dash, for starters. I did have to adjust to how it actually played because the Attack command is not something that you can just mash all willy-nilly since there is a delay in each slash. Think of Zach swinging his sword like he's trying to hit a piñata.
After that, I managed to enjoy the combat a lot. One thing that surprised me is that more damage to enemies can be done... by slashing their behinds. The game designers had to have been aware of this because one boss decides to shoot lightning out its butt as a prank. Why not have it shoot fireballs from its eyes, then, just to even things out?
Materia is also used to perform magic spells and other abilities. This is taken even further with the addition of Materia Fusion. With this, you can fuse different types of Materia to create something else entirely depending on what you use. I'm starting to see where Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep got its inspiration from since the Command Melding is similar to this one. (Fun fact: both games were made with the same game engine)
Prepare to say "NOBODY SAID THERE'D BE MATH!" because Materia Fusion is also useful for increasing your stats. For example, if Zack has 2,950 HP and you equip Fire Materia that gives you 50 HP, it gives you a total of 3,000 HP. If you fuse that Fire Materia and another HP Materia, then equipping it will give you a total of 3,030 HP. I hardly ever used this feature and just stuck with whatever Materia I collected in-game, but it's nice to see an option like this as a means of experimentation.
The one feature that keeps the combat interesting is the Digital Mind Wave, or DMW for short. On the top-left corner is a pachislot machine filled with characters who appear in the game. When three slots match up with the same character, Zack can then perform a Limit Break that either deals damage to enemies or heals him. There will also be times when the game notifies you that heightened emotions will affect the DMW. That means more Limit Breaks can be accessed if the DMW is at Sky High or Heavenly. If this sounds a bit complicated, it isn't. When playing the game, I treat it as something that happens on the side while I fight enemies and it draws my attention when something interesting happens.
The DMW seems to be polarizing among fans. In my opinion, I think it's a nice way to spice up the combat and prevent it from getting stale. It's entirely luck-based and you don't have any control of it, but there weren't a lot of times in the game where I felt it was intrusive. Plus, it feels good when the slots line up perfectly and level up either Zack's stats or Materia.
The random encounter rate can be pretty annoying, though. For starters, every time combat begins, you're greeted with a voice saying "Activating Combat Mode," which starts to get on my nerves a bit. I've mentioned before that I do value every random battle as a means of leveling up, but sometimes I need a breather to the point where I hug a wall while running just to stop these encounters.
Outside of combat, though, there isn't much to do. You just walk to your next destination to progress the story. There may be some tasks like getting some items for someone or that stealth section that I did not enjoy, but those are few and far in between. There is hardly any freedom to just roam around given how linear the game is. I will say that shopping for items like potions is a lot more convenient since you can just access the shop in the pause menu and you will always have enough money to do so.
The 300+ side missions that you can access any time you reach a save point does make up for the lack of free roaming, but just barely. It does take advantage of the game's handheld nature in which you can beat one mission in just a few minutes. I can back that claim up since I took on a few missions before I clocked in at work. They are a double-edged sword for me. On one hand, they're short, to the point, and have some worthwhile rewards. On the other, they get pretty repetitive after a while.
Though it has a few shortcomings, I still really enjoyed Crisis Core. The biggest issue with it is that it's held back by system limitations. I'm not going to fault the game for this that much, but it does start to become noticeable. With better hardware and some tweaking, it could have been better than what it already is. There are also some parts of the story that were pretty underdeveloped, most likely due these limitations as well.
Finally, and it's quite minor, but you can't skip the cutscenes. It's a problem when at one point, I saved my progress, sat through a series of cutscenes, went up against a boss fight, and died. I had to sit through it again as a result.
As for its biggest strengths, there is the fun real-time combat system and various ways to experiment with Materia. The story still delivers on some pretty powerful moments that make me forgive some of its shortcomings. Finally, Zack is one of favorite video game protagonists. He is not only likable and compelling, but he has a fully-realized character arc even if it's in a prequel story.
The game also doesn't overstay its welcome, since beating it should take approximately 20 hours. There is some good replay value thanks to New Game+, which features some content not seen in the previous playthrough. I can see myself playing through this again when I go on trips. With that in mind, I give Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII my rating of...
Special thanks goes to my friend, Espino Productions, for helping me out with this review. He's the one who introduced me to Crisis Core and Final Fantasy overall so I thank him for that, too. Be sure to check him out on Instagram.
If you like what I've written here and want to support what I do, consider donating to my Patreon.
Story and Characters
A common problem with prequel stories is that stuff has to occur so that the original itself can happen. This can lead to the story being predictable and lacking in tension altogether. With that said, while Crisis Core does have moments like these, it nonetheless tells a gripping story about events that precede Final Fantasy VII.
The story centers around Zack Fair, a young member of SOLDIER. Many players will remember him from the few flashbacks of Final Fantasy VII, and this game expands on his backstory a lot more. He is assigned to search for a missing member named Genesis. In the meantime, he also finds himself in the middle of various conflicts like the war between Shinra and Wutai as well as meeting some familiar characters.
I love Zack as a character. He is extremely likable due to his friendly and outgoing personality. Even so, he has flaws, too, which makes him relatable. He tends to slip up sometimes during training and even missions, which gives him room to grow. He is also driven by his dream to become a hero, taking his mentor's words to embrace them.
One of my favorite things about the story is that Zack has to go up against a lot of harsh decisions while serving under SOLDIER. Whether it would be taking over a town that views Shinra as evil or having to fight against one of his own, you really feel the weight on his shoulders.
Of course, what's a character if he doesn't have a supporting cast to bounce off of? I really liked some of the friendships that he forms with other people. From what little interactions we have between them, the relationship between him and his mentor, Angeal, is pretty strong due to a great amount of snark and respect towards each other. This exchange between them pretty much sums it up:
Angeal is also the reason that Zack inherits the Buster Sword, a nice symbol of passing things on to other people.
Zack also forms a romantic relationship with Aerith and I find it to be pretty sweet. They have some pretty good chemistry with each other and Zack does shape her to become the flower girl that we were introduced to in the original. One of my favorite scenes in the game is where, without spoiling, Aerith embraces a mourning Zack, which just strengthens their relationship further.
If there is one relationship that I wish could have been expanded upon, it's between him and Cloud. I like the fact that they have common backgrounds, but there aren't many scenes that really flesh their friendship out. According to director Hajime Tabata, technical limitations prevented the developers from doing this. I still think it's a missed opportunity, especially when Cloud is the protagonist of the original game.
Now, I didn't play Crisis Core until this year, but I already knew of certain story beats, including the ending. However, finally experiencing it from beginning to end, I still managed to well up during certain tearjerking moments. The story is extremely gripping and it even recontextualizes certain moments from the original in a new light.
Referring back to my review of Final Fantasy VII, I mentioned that I didn't find Sephiroth all that interesting as a villain. Thankfully, this game alleviates this. If anything, it shows a more human side to the character. When he appears, he comes off as a decent and respectable trooper. It becomes genuinely tragic once we see his descent into madness updated into this game.
The same cannot be said with Genesis. He's an interesting foil to Sephiroth as they're both going through an identity crisis. However, the story does very little to make me care for him and his internal conflict, coming off as a boring villain. All I could get out of him is that he likes to recite his favorite play. If that doesn't get on your nerves rather quickly, then I salute you.
As for other problems in the story, other parts do feel underwritten or underdeveloped. I've already mentioned the friendship between Zack and Cloud that could have been expanded more. There is also the friendship between Zack and Cissnei (from Before Crisis). I wish there was more that I could say about her and their friendship, apart from Cissnei providing a worthwhile quote prior Zack's confrontation with another character.
Finally, there are also the call-forwards to the original game, which many prequel stories suffer from. Now, I think the intro was a nice way to introduce players to something familiar before getting to the actual meat of the story. It's just that certain moments could have been more subtle. For example, one NPC asks Zack what he should call this one bar that he is constructing. This is obviously referring to the Seventh Heaven bar, which would serve as the hideout of AVALANCHE in the original game. But good gosh, does this guy have foresight or something?
 |
| Get it? He described Tifa! Subtle, right? |
Graphics
The game looks pretty good. The character models are faithful to Tetsuya Nomura's designs and the familiar characters retain some of their traits, like Aerith wearing her bow or Sephiroth's long hair. The character animations are also well-done, and I can't get enough of Zack squatting, which is one of the ways that I exercise myself. Though, the way some NPC's run look pretty funny. When you're chasing this one character in a section of the game, the way he runs doesn't look like he's fearful for his life, but worried that he's going to dirty up his shoes.
I have a problem with the environments being pretty barren and empty with not many NPC's to interact with (except in select moments, particularly the Slums). In some parts of the story, it makes sense, like when Zack visits a town in which all but one person has evacuated. I think why the game feels empty at times has to be as a result of the PSP's technical limitations. Still, I think the environments look great and when we do see familiar locations, my mind tends to go "Hey, I remember that place!"
In select moments, there are also some beautifully-made CGI cutscenes with impressive mocap performances. A highlight has to be duel between Angeal, Sephiroth, and Genesis due to the fast-paced choreography and the trio just wrecking stuff up. One minor thing to note is that the animators went out of their way to have the lip animations match both the Japanese and English dubs. Now that's dedication right there.
Audio
I have to give props to the English voice acting, because it's pretty well-done. Another reason as to why I love Zack as a character is the performance of his voice actor, Rick Gomez. Not only is his voice great, but he nails the friendly and outgoing personality of the character. He also gives a pretty nuanced performance as I'm really convinced to all the times that Zack is either angry or sad.
Some of the rest of the Advent Children voice cast reprise their roles, like Steve Burton as Cloud and George Newbern as Sephiroth and they all do a great job. Andrea Bowen also becomes the third voice for Aerith (succeeding Mandy Moore and Mena Suvari) and she's by far the best one. She captured the kind and flirty sides of her so well for those reasons alone.
The music composed by Takeharu Ishimoto is also one of the high points of Crisis Core. It's varied in terms of orchestral and rock pieces, but they never clash with one another. Each track successfully captures a mood, whether it would be tense, relaxing, lonely, or heartfelt. I also dig some of the tracks that give a Western vibe, which is fitting in some locations.
Ishimoto also successfully carried over some of Nobuo Uematsu's compositions from Final Fantasy VII for thematic consistency. There are some wonderful renditions of "Let the Battles Begin," "Aerith's Theme" (titled "A Flower Blooming in the Slums"), and "One Winged Angel" (titled "The World's Enemy"), to name a few.
Of course, there are plenty of original tracks to speak of that are just as great. A lot of the music is ambient, but highlights include the game's main theme (which could also be argued as Zack's theme), many of the battle tracks, and "The Price of Freedom," which plays in a few key moments, one being a massive tearjerker. Finally, there's the vocal song "Why" performed by Ayaka, which is a powerful way to end the game and Zack's journey.
Gameplay
As an RPG, it's a lot more action-oriented. Anyone familiar with the gameplay of Kingdom Hearts will feel right at home because combat is in real time. You can attack, dodge roll, block, and dash, for starters. I did have to adjust to how it actually played because the Attack command is not something that you can just mash all willy-nilly since there is a delay in each slash. Think of Zach swinging his sword like he's trying to hit a piñata.
After that, I managed to enjoy the combat a lot. One thing that surprised me is that more damage to enemies can be done... by slashing their behinds. The game designers had to have been aware of this because one boss decides to shoot lightning out its butt as a prank. Why not have it shoot fireballs from its eyes, then, just to even things out?
Materia is also used to perform magic spells and other abilities. This is taken even further with the addition of Materia Fusion. With this, you can fuse different types of Materia to create something else entirely depending on what you use. I'm starting to see where Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep got its inspiration from since the Command Melding is similar to this one. (Fun fact: both games were made with the same game engine)
Prepare to say "NOBODY SAID THERE'D BE MATH!" because Materia Fusion is also useful for increasing your stats. For example, if Zack has 2,950 HP and you equip Fire Materia that gives you 50 HP, it gives you a total of 3,000 HP. If you fuse that Fire Materia and another HP Materia, then equipping it will give you a total of 3,030 HP. I hardly ever used this feature and just stuck with whatever Materia I collected in-game, but it's nice to see an option like this as a means of experimentation.
The one feature that keeps the combat interesting is the Digital Mind Wave, or DMW for short. On the top-left corner is a pachislot machine filled with characters who appear in the game. When three slots match up with the same character, Zack can then perform a Limit Break that either deals damage to enemies or heals him. There will also be times when the game notifies you that heightened emotions will affect the DMW. That means more Limit Breaks can be accessed if the DMW is at Sky High or Heavenly. If this sounds a bit complicated, it isn't. When playing the game, I treat it as something that happens on the side while I fight enemies and it draws my attention when something interesting happens.
The DMW seems to be polarizing among fans. In my opinion, I think it's a nice way to spice up the combat and prevent it from getting stale. It's entirely luck-based and you don't have any control of it, but there weren't a lot of times in the game where I felt it was intrusive. Plus, it feels good when the slots line up perfectly and level up either Zack's stats or Materia.
The random encounter rate can be pretty annoying, though. For starters, every time combat begins, you're greeted with a voice saying "Activating Combat Mode," which starts to get on my nerves a bit. I've mentioned before that I do value every random battle as a means of leveling up, but sometimes I need a breather to the point where I hug a wall while running just to stop these encounters.
Outside of combat, though, there isn't much to do. You just walk to your next destination to progress the story. There may be some tasks like getting some items for someone or that stealth section that I did not enjoy, but those are few and far in between. There is hardly any freedom to just roam around given how linear the game is. I will say that shopping for items like potions is a lot more convenient since you can just access the shop in the pause menu and you will always have enough money to do so.
The 300+ side missions that you can access any time you reach a save point does make up for the lack of free roaming, but just barely. It does take advantage of the game's handheld nature in which you can beat one mission in just a few minutes. I can back that claim up since I took on a few missions before I clocked in at work. They are a double-edged sword for me. On one hand, they're short, to the point, and have some worthwhile rewards. On the other, they get pretty repetitive after a while.
Conclusion
Though it has a few shortcomings, I still really enjoyed Crisis Core. The biggest issue with it is that it's held back by system limitations. I'm not going to fault the game for this that much, but it does start to become noticeable. With better hardware and some tweaking, it could have been better than what it already is. There are also some parts of the story that were pretty underdeveloped, most likely due these limitations as well.
Finally, and it's quite minor, but you can't skip the cutscenes. It's a problem when at one point, I saved my progress, sat through a series of cutscenes, went up against a boss fight, and died. I had to sit through it again as a result.
As for its biggest strengths, there is the fun real-time combat system and various ways to experiment with Materia. The story still delivers on some pretty powerful moments that make me forgive some of its shortcomings. Finally, Zack is one of favorite video game protagonists. He is not only likable and compelling, but he has a fully-realized character arc even if it's in a prequel story.
The game also doesn't overstay its welcome, since beating it should take approximately 20 hours. There is some good replay value thanks to New Game+, which features some content not seen in the previous playthrough. I can see myself playing through this again when I go on trips. With that in mind, I give Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII my rating of...
GOOD OUTWEIGH THE BAD
Special thanks goes to my friend, Espino Productions, for helping me out with this review. He's the one who introduced me to Crisis Core and Final Fantasy overall so I thank him for that, too. Be sure to check him out on Instagram.
If you like what I've written here and want to support what I do, consider donating to my Patreon.
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