PSP Game Review: Crisis Core: Final Fantasy

 Crisis Core: Final Fantasy is the prelude to the video game changing game for the PS1, Final Fantasy VII.  This is not the story of anyone major in FF7 minus Aerith for some parts and some small snippets of Cloud.  So right off the bat, there is no Barret, no Tifa (minus a very small part of the game), no Red, Cait Sith, Vincent, Yuffie (also minus a very small, rather insignificant part of the game) and Cid.  A lot of this game revolves around Zack Fair, a SOLDIER who wants to make it to the height of his hero, Sephiroth (yeah this was mainly before Sephiroth went wild with wanting to conquer the world) and arguably it revolves around the role of the Turks before FF7.  With this being one 15-20 hour game (more if you really are a completionist) there are some big positives and some negatives in this game.  Let's go through both below!

Positives:

1. Zack Fair's Character- The biggest plus to this game is the character development of Zack.  It is blatantly clear the start sees Zack as a character who wants to go to SOLDIER for fame, fortune, be like Sephiroth, and most likely the women attached with a mix of those two of three. However, what begins on that journey transforms Zack through the game.  He begins to question what his role is within SOLDIER, within Shinra, why he is doing this job and ultimately it makes him more cerebral, more observant to a world that is better than just Shinra.  It includes a love interest (more on that in a moment) and a friendship that he didn't think would happen.  Overall he becomes a lot more caring, a lot more dedicated and a lot less selfless and that I think was a big positive in this game.

2. The Turks- I actually quite like their roles in Crisis Core.  In FF7, it's more "Catch Aerith, kill Cloud and the group" as their goal while also 'looking' for Sephiroth.  This is not the case in Crisis Core.  In this, they are more friends with Zack and wanting the best for him.  They also take an approach to making sure Aerith is safe.  It's something of a kindness in ways and make you hate Shinra more rather than respect them.  This is evident in the end, as Cissnei and Zack talk and Tseng makes it an objective to Cissnei, Rude, and Reno to keep Zack and Cloud safe. 

3. Story Telling- I thought Crisis Core told a good story.  It led up mainly years before FF7, but ended essentially right before FF7 started.  It was a good story to tell from Zack's time in SOLDIER, but also learning a bit more about Sephiroth but how low Hojo was on the ladder and other characters as well, like Hollander, Lazard, Genesis and Angeal.  It is also nice how they tell a story of Zack/Aerith and how their relationship blooms over time.  I enjoyed that, I enjoyed how they did everything overall in this relatively short game.

4. Execution to the Story- Now they told a good story yes, but how they executed the story telling is important.  From the moment of executing Zack's initial story, to his blossoming with Aerith to tell a major story and love interest, to what happened in towns you didn't hear about in FF7, to his friendship with Cloud, to what happens in Nibelheim, almost everything is executed really well. Yes this includes..

5. The Ending- Yes it's sad, yes it's completely unnecessary, yes it makes me massively hate Shinra, but it is so well executed and so well done and sticks to essentially what the FF7 part about this was that it honestly hurt to see.  I didn't think even with an open mind that I would think of Zack as anything more than a leader but I get why he is revered even to this day.  It is really neat his ability to be so selfless that it endears you to him and that's why the ending honestly hurt for me.

6. Soundtrack- At this point it is really just a broken record.  Yes it's Final Fantasy, yes it's Uematsu, yes it's going to be amazing music.  The game is full of amazing music and that is all that matters. 

Neutral:

1. Cloud- This likely is to be expected for most anyone who plays this game. He doesn't play a major role in this game and that is fine given the ability to make Zack the hero which is most okay overall.  He forms the friendship with Zack but that's mainly all he is needed for in this game.  He provides a friendship for Zack outside the Turks and Aerith.

2. Sephiroth- Yes it was nice to see him prior to what happens in Nibelheim, however he doesn't just strike me as a major ordeal.  Look most everyone knows what happened in Nibelheim, and yes the fight with him was cool but really leading up to that moment I more or less thought that he was alright.  He wasn't terrific or bad but simply just there and that was fine.

3. Graphics- Notice I wouldn't put this on the positives? Yeah the graphics are good, but not great.  There's too much graininess in the graphics to put it as a plus.  It feels like this is due to the PSP, but I don't really understand it to be fair.  It is what it is but I think it's that I expected more from it. It is what is though so it's more neutral than plus/minus.

Negatives:

1. Combat- Usually I don't hate combat in FF games but ho boy did this game come close to boring me out with the combat.  There is just hitting and magic.  That's.. legitimately it for combating any monsters or bosses in this game.  No strategy is involved in doing this.  By the end I was more or less like let's just get done with this already. Which leads me to..

2. "Initiating Combat Mode/Modulating Phase"- These words are ingrained forever in my soul because the first one is because Crisis Core's random battle encounter rate is stupid high and it is honestly irritating because of the aforementioned combat.  The latter quote comes up honestly far too much during battle and tends to make the battle slow and slog through it.  It's honestly part of the combat and it honestly is a major downgrade in this game.

3. The camera- Yeah the angles in this game are bad at most times.  You can go up/down with the camera and barely can do left/right actions.  Most times it is overhead and you can't bring that down so it makes some parts really ridiculous and makes you miss a lot of items randomly.  It's just a frustrating thing that obviously most every other Final Fantasy game gets right.

Overall Rating:

So given all the positives/negatives/neutrals, would I recommend Crisis Core? Honestly I would, because the story and the execution are honestly well done overall.  The camera can be a minus yes, and yes the combat is cumbersome and rough but the rest of the game is honestly well done overall.  So if you want to see the before scenes of FF7, check out Crisis Core because it is a good game overall, minus the camera work and the combat.  Overall Rating: 8.3 out of 10.

Switch Game Review: Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild

 Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild came to Nintendo Switch and was an instant success.  So much a success it became that they are making a sequel to the game, coming out in the next year.  This features another story to the Legend of Zelda series and it brings a massive open world to the player and the ability to see a lot of places and find shrines and korok seeds to upgrade the key protagonist, Link, throughout the game.  So what does Breath of the Wild do well? What isn't done well (yes there is this too)? All of that and more below.

Positives:

1. Open World- This involves massive amounts of exploration and a terrific ability to find a lot of things that happen over the course of this game.  The player will enjoy the open world map as a great exploration opportunity and the ability to see a new side of Zelda that players may not have done prior in a 3-D setting.  This really plays to the strength of the Switch and its capability as well to provide for this much of an open world setting.

2. Music/Graphics- Yes this is simple, both the music and the graphics are fantastic and they will always be that way for Zelda.  There isn't much to it other than the ability to be great always.

3. Ability to Train Horses- This was honestly cool and a bit more in-depth than I thought it would be but it takes some time to make your horse totally love you but once it does it is awesome how much they will fight for you as well.  It's a good thing to do and speed up part of your exploration if you wanted to do so.  Plus you can name them some good names if you'd like.

4. The ability to work for Prizes- You have to work for prizes here.  You don't just go to a place and get a thing. You have to typically work for big items here.  A lot of the shrines you have to face guardians or have to do some tasks in order to get Spirit Orbs or some great weapons/armor.  It's actually good to be rewarded for hard work in a game in my thoughts. 

5. Fairies- I like how you also have to work for this.  I also like that they give you upgrades like they have in past games as well.  It's a time honored tradition of this but one that I can absolutely enjoy overall. 

6. Meeting Other Main Characters- This is more likely for the Hyrule Warriors spinoff but it is nice to see some characters of that in this game and they may be in other games as well.  Overall it was nice to see these characters in my playthrough (as I haven't played any Zelda games from Majora's Mask up to BOTW) and be able to see how these characters would fight in other games.

7. Hetsu- That big dude is just absolutely hilarious and his maracas are absolutely amazing to deal with all the time when getting an expansion to your armor/bow/sword pack.  He is definitely a plus and I appreciate it a ton.

Negatives:

1. Too Big Feeling- I feel 120 Shrines and 900 Korok Seeds is just far too big for this game.  It feels like 100 percenting this game would take forever with these sorts of things going on and it almost just feels like they made a big game for the sake of making a big game here.  Sometimes you can do without that and this would be a good example that you can take out some stuff (In this case, 30 shrines and at least half the Korok Seeds) and you would have this game be fine.

2. Too Easy Bosses- To be honest the only tough test is Thunderblight Ganon because the rest are honestly super easy and they don't require a ton of effort.  That includes the final two bosses of this game.  It just felt like beating these while worthwhile in some aspect just felt too easy overall.

3. Combat- I don't mind that items break, I just felt the combat was a bit weird overall.  Yes it is based on timing with the guardians in terms of parrying which I don't mind, but it's a bit mystifying the timing of just regular enemies attacks that are normal and their sensing from quite a distance so that was something confusing to deal with. 

Overall Rating:

Overall, Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild is a terrific game that can overcome its flaws in a lot of ways.  The strategy in this game can be immense but it is more noted for regular fights rather than bosses or those guardians.  The main and final bosses are honestly way too easy but the guardians make up for it.  Yes the combat is a bit wonky but you can overcome that and be fine.  It's not a perfect game like Link's Awakening was for Game Boy and it's remaster or A Link to the Past was for SNES.  Breath of the Wild however is still an excellent game and I would give it a solid 9 out of 10. 

PS1 Game Review: Madden NFL 99

 Madden NFL 99 started a transcending of sorts for EA's biggest brand as it went from the sort of pixelated sprites of Madden 97 and 98 as they transformed to the 3D era of everything going forward from here onward.  As I noted in the Madden NFL 98 review I would not be able to compare it to Madden 99 in a lot of ways but the best way to say is to point out the improvements of this game from Madden 98, and yes there are also downsides to this game (much in the same as Madden 98.)

Improvements from Madden 98:

1. 3D models of Players- Major upside here is to compete with NFL Gameday 98 and 99 and Madden turned it to 3D models of players and they got better overall.  It looks more realistic and it was a very nice change overall with the player models.

2. Franchise Mode- Besides player models, Franchise mode is the biggest addition to this.  A fifteen year Franchise mode enables you to go through the regular season, meet team expectations, or possibly get fired for not meeting expectations, signing players due to holes on the team during the year, trading, and all the off-season stuff like retirements, drafting, trades, and so forth.  This was a major step forward in terms of competing and ultimately overtaking NFL Gameday's game. 

3. Updated Graphics- Not just the player models, but the stands and stadiums are also more refined overall.  They looked better as a result and they continued to showcase the art of being better at this.

4. Updated playbooks- This was a big thing as well as they were more accurate on playbooks at this time so they did their homework prior to making the game.  Overall this was a big step forward for a franchise that needed to get going forward. 

5. Fantasy Tourney- There are generic teams played at a generic stadium in San Mateo, California like the Generals for lack of better team names however the main reason I put this in is this: The Fantasy Tourney helps a lot and pretty much brings forward what is true about Fantasy Football today, getting the best team able and get the best of everything over a season. 

6. A Password Code System for Added Things- One thing you can do is bring back the Cleveland Browns (Thanks Art Modell for taking them away for no reason) in exhibition mode with a password code you can type in.  There are others you can do as well but this is the main one (And yes they come back for real anyway in Madden 2000.) 

Negatives:

1. Passing Game- Yep again it is a major struggle.  It is exceptionally difficult to complete passes in this game and it is honestly annoying because if your running game isn't good then you are sunk offensively overall.  This also then leads me to..

2. The Line of Scrimmage- It becomes a bit of a moshpit and jumbled mess with a lot of bodies almost right away when passing.  This leads to a lot of batted down balls which can be good on defense but on offense it is very annoying to deal with.  This was a problem that seemed to be better with 97 and 98 but reverted back in 99.  

3. Some Stadiums realism: Tennessee's stadium is unrealistic in one end zone, which may be expected because they unexpectedly went from the Liberty Bowl to Vanderbilt Stadium in Nashville in a year.  However Raymond James Stadium was complete by the time the Bucs played there for 1998 but the game showcases them at their old Houlihan's Stadium.

4. Camera- It doesn't work well with the close up camera.  It feels too close even at the snap of the ball with the layout of the play.  With running plays this comes into conflict as well and makes it a struggle in some ways.  With the passing camera, it's okay but the passing game is already a struggle.  However with turnovers it goes very zoomed in and a major struggle. 

Overall Rating:

Madden NFL 99 is better than Madden 98 and 97 but that was going to be a given.  However it is still a work in progress and a game that still needed refining overall.  It got closer to the NFL Gameday franchise in terms of overall play but still lagged behind it.  On the opposite hand, it progressed in a big way from simply above average to good as a franchise with this game.  Overall rating: 8 out of 10.

PS1 Game Review: Madden NFL 98

 Madden NFL 98 is the seemingly better sequel to Madden NFL 97.  The reasons I say this are below but there are still plenty of flaws with this football game.  When I complete Madden NFL 99's review tomorrow I will not make a comparison to Madden 98 to Madden 99 since there are so many differences between the two.  However, without any further ado, here are the comparisons between Madden 97 and Madden 98.

1. Similar play structure- The players are about the same here, just a few minor details in terms of player models, numbers and such for Madden 98.  The players however are still much of the same type model of player, and same type of game engine in terms of what plays work, what doesn't, etc. 

2. Still same issues- Passing is immensely difficult in Madden 98 as it was in Madden 97.  There are a few plays that work and it does well but that's all.  It's incredibly frustrating to pass in the game.  Running is actually alright and is a plus for most of this game.  Defense is still fine and you can rely on defense for quite a bit of this game.  

3. Still accurate stadiums- There isn't much that would have changed, aside from the Oilers moving from Houston to Tennessee.  However they were pretty accurate on where they went as they went to Memphis, not Nashville to start.  It was a good way to depict and create Liberty Bowl Memorial Stadium and otherwise they did well for the rest of the stadiums.  

4. Better Studio Presentation- This isn't like the every week pre-game like Madden 97, which may have been a bit much but to the season opener with James Brown, as well as the playoffs with him as well.  The duo of John Madden and Pat Summerall still do offer their best analysis of the upcoming game which is nice.  

Other notes:

1. Not Updated Rosters- I think they did this after the NFL draft rather than pre-season because there were players on every team that were not on the pre-season roster for teams.  It's something that happened pretty intently before the seasons especially in early Madden games until the early 2000's.  I don't necessarily blame EA but it's something that they do fix later on in later games, especially as they made jumps to next Gen consoles. 

2. Pretty Accurate Team Ratings- These are honestly alright overall and they showcase good ratings despite the roster flaws. The Packers are still great, same with San Francisco.  New England was slated to be a top AFC team and they still were pretty good.  The Broncos were also great, and there weren't many surprises overall.  Only major one was Washington in the playoffs but they were looked at as a playoff team in 1996/97 anyway so wasn't that shocking overall.

Negatives:

1. Presentation- It just is a very wonky and honestly not great presentation of the game.  This probably is one of the few Madden games I would say that for but EA I felt dropped the ball in ways being monotonous on the pre-game between John and Pat because it was mainly the same thing over and over.  This was a step back from Madden 97 I have to say.

2. Lack of Real Emotion- If someone told me that this game is dry on emotion I would absolutely agree.  The crowd noise isn't there, the players really didn't have much emphasis and I should be glad that this gets better over time to be honest and that this was kind of an end to the bad emotion to the game/dryness to it.

Overall Rating:

Madden NFL 98 is a slight step above Madden 97 on the PS1, which doesn't say a lot to be honest.  This game still lagged behind NFL Gameday 98 and honestly it needed more to save itself on that accord. However it fell short for me.  There just isn't enough presentation, good enough graphics and really I felt this resembled what had to be a turning point for Madden overall.  My rating is a 7 out of 10.  

PS2 Game Review: NCAA Football 2003

 NCAA Football 2003 comes off the successes of its predecessor, NCAA Football 2002.  For 2002, they made the step to the next gen consoles in a way that some people would look and wonder if they made the right choice while also wondering what was next.  The game had some good upsides while also having some alarming holes that needed to be done to be good in future games on the next gen consoles at the time (The PS2, soon to have GameCube and XBOX as well.)  NCAA Football 2003 also begins the trend to go to the XBOX and GameCube to bring EA Sports into all the next gen consoles, continuing what they had with the PS2 during NCAA Football 2002.  This game review will be essentially a comparison to NCAA Football 2002 in which is a good stepping stone.  So what is different about NCAA 2003 compared to 2002? That is below!

1. More fluid gameplay- It's not as choppy, it's not as slow, it is more fluid and more quick paced and you enjoy this game more every play.  It's a game that also looks more fluid and better so the gameplay engine shouldn't be a surprise when it looks and plays more crisp.

2. Additional commentary lines- When Brad Nessler, Kirk Herbstreit, and Lee Corso announce your games you will have more commentary lines and not the same limited script they had for the 2002 game.  In NCAA 2003, a lot more commentary is provided and given and it makes for a lot better game overall when you are on the regional/national telecast.

3. Regional/National Broadcast- A lot of people may chide at this given the open accessibility of different apps to view games these days but this was 2002/2003, where if you had a satellite dish, you MAY be able to watch games out east, north, west, or south that were regionally based or had one heck of a subscription to your television plan.  I actually like the regional/national broadcast and when not that then just a simple on-field announcer.  This is just a bit more polished for NCAA 2003 but still something I enjoyed.

4. Recruiting is better than 2002- Not only is the team depth chart there, you have nearly unlimited points if you succeed to recruit cross-country or nearby as much as you want.  However the scholarship limit is still there so you will have to deal with that.  However one major difference is that you get to see what recruits you signed prior to the next week right away on screen rather than going through a couple of menus to see who signed.  Those are good improvements for the future games.

5. Trophies- You can get trophies in this game, from a couple dozen rivalry trophies, to individual trophies such as the Heisman, to the bowl trophies and that includes the National Championship.  This is a big step in the right direction to making the game cooler for the player.  It's a step that was desperately needed but also desperately good for the franchise as it progressed forward.

6. Full Next Gen Console Gaming- The console wars waged on in the early 2000's, something that continues today, and EA took advantage of this by putting their game on all 3 major consoles at the time.  For Nintendo fans, it was the first such college football game by EA to their console since College Football USA 97, which was on the SNES and absolutely atrocious.  For XBOX fans, this was the first EA college football game ever, and it was better graphically than the PS2 to be fair.  All in all it brought EA to a new spot and they capitalized big time on it.

Other positives:

1. Difficulty- It plays a bit less easy than that of NCAA 2002, and that is a good thing overall.  It felt more challenging and more rewarding in recruiting and on the field getting good players and beating good teams.  You are also rewarded with that typically in the polls, unless the dreaded BCS hates you.  

2. Fresh Intros- This comes typically from on-campus students and being able to have them say the traditional "EA Sports, It's In The Game" and possibly some coaches as well, but this was another way of them interacting with college kids at the time and felt something cool to do.

Negatives:

1. Limited Recruiting- This seems to be a bit better in later game versions but it seemed in the two seasons I did recruiting I seemed to be limited to mainly my region rather than a nationwide thing.  Anything past Ohio was seen as rough to get recruits and that was something that sort of frustrated me at Buffalo (whom I used in my worst-to-first dynasty mode.)  The game seemed to get better with this for the future but in 2003, it was a bit limited. 

2. Mistake prone- It seemed this game while being better and more crisp in its engine made the teams also prone to mistakes? There were plenty of games that made it drag on due to missed assignments, drops, turnovers and worst of all the penalties.  I don't know if that was a major ordeal in testing but those things happened for me and the penalty meter was average at best.

Overall Rating:

Overall for NCAA Football 2003, they do a lot different and improve a lot better in a lot of facets.  They built upon some stuff from 2002 but made it exponentially better in 2003.  I absolutely enjoyed playing through this again and I have a lot of praise for this game.  The negatives can be weighed in but they don't deter from the fact EA was definitely going in the right direction again and the fact that they got this game this well done deserves merit.  Overall rating: 9 out of 10.