Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII
April 8,2008 - Final Fantasy VII is probably the most popular Japanese RPG to ever come out. It set the standard for RPG’s, with memorable characters, a fantastic musical score, and what is perhaps the most complicated plot in all of gaming. Square Enix released another game that goes into the big Compilation of Final Fantasy VII, and not just to make money from FFVII fans. Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII is a hell of a game that gets a lot of things right.

Crisis Core takes place a few years before the events of Final Fantasy VII. The main protagonist is Zack Fair, a 2nd Class member of SOLDIER, Shin-ra’s elite fighting squad. FFVII fanatics may remember Zack from select scenes in the PSOne classic, but they were very barren and nobody really knew what the guy was like—he only had about one line in the entire game. We won’t go into any specifics, but just know the game is all about the adventures of Zack Fair as he makes his way up the SOLDIER ranks while meeting a lot of marquee characters along the way including Professor Hojo, Cloud, Aerith, and of course the coolest villain ever… Sephiroth.

The game is an action RPG through and through, but what sets it apart is that the battle system is not necessarily in real time, nor is it necessarily turn-based. The fighting style is similar to that of the Tales series, where if you press the attack button, Zack will charge and deliver swipes with his blade. Overall, the combat is really simplistic as you can cycle through various commands, such as using items or magic just by using the left and right shoulder buttons, and they’d all be used with the X button as well.

The popular Limit Breaks from the original game have been replaced by the DMW system, which tracks Zack’s emotions of certain characters you meet in the game. The DMW system is visible on the upper-left hand corner of the screen and takes the form of a slot machine that is otherwise uncontrollable. The game automatically uses some of the points gained in battle to keep the slots moving, and when the left and right slots match, you’re taken to an additional screen to take a look at which pictures and numbers the middle slot stops at. The slots each have a picture of an important character in the game along with a random number. When all three slots have the same character, Zack will perform a special move that corresponds to that character. In the case of Sephiroth, Zack unleashes a powerful sword combo; with Aerith, Zack unleashes the Healing Wave, which heals him and grants temporarily invincibility. When certain numbers match up in the slots, you level up a certain battle tool, whether that is your material (magic) or even Zack himself.

You might think that the battle system is overly complicated, and in all honesty—it really is, but after a few fights, you rarely even think about it. The most important things to do in battle are to find a comfortable and strategic way to fight in order to stay alive. For example, whenever you approach an enemy and attack from behind, that strike will automatically be considered a critical hit. As long as you constantly use the best possible materia and equipment in the game, you’ll be fine. At first, you’ll be tempted to just mash the X button to win a battle, but eventually, especially as you approach the middle to the end of the game—that strategy won’t work anymore.

Aside from the main story, in save points you can take part in optional SOLDIER missions. They’re divided into separate categories and difficulties, which flash out in order to immediately tell the player what to expect. Essentially, these are all dungeon-crawler type missions, where the main point is to get from Point A to Point B, and kill the main monster. Along the way you’ll find treasure chests which carry items you’d usually buy through the shop, but with these missions—forget the shop. When you finish each mission, you’re awarded a particular item or materia, which make your journey a whole lot easier, especially since you won’t have too many opportunities to level up or find rare materia. All the missions are pretty short (about 15 minutes each), so the game is certainly playable when you’re on the go or if you want to play in bunches.

What makes the game a bit tiresome is that you use Zack the entire time, which is hard to really complain about because the game is about his life in SOLDIER. The other complaint people can make is that there is an extreme lack of exploration—at least when compared to other RPG’s, or other Final Fantasy games for that matter. The bulk of the game takes place within the plates of Midgar, where the Shin-ra Corporation is based, and only a mission can take you out of the confines. You also don’t even have access to a lot of the buildings in the game, so that would make people wonder why there even are buildings in it in the first place.

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