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.
No comments:
Post a Comment