Final Fantasy Crisis Core

Crisis Core Review

Final Fantasy VII Crisis Core is a yet another crown from Square Enix Corporation, with amazing pre-rendered cinematic sequences and excellent music score, featuring a new spiky-hared protagonist. Crisis Core deals with the story of an energetic member of SOLDIER Corporation named Zack Fair who is the protagonist of the game. It was the same organization that bred Sephiroth and Cloud Strife, the golden-haired protagonist of Final Fantasy VII. Zack Fair is all about honesty and ambition with heroic appeal and bright eyes. His idealistic views make him fight against Shinra, another organization whose ethical standards are questionable. Crisis Core mostly focuses on Zack’s interaction with 3 major characters Sephiroth, Genesis and Angeal. Though there are some other characters, these 3 operatives of SOLDIER Corporation are the center of attraction and involved in most part of the game. Zack Fair along with Angeal, his mentor set on a mission to investigate about Genesis, the missing members of SOLDIER and to conquer hostile powers in Wutai. The plot gets complicated in every level and involves lot of action and combat.

FF7 Crisis Core has the best graphic and visual effects among all PSP based games. The cinematic sequences are awesome and look similar to DVD release of Advent Children. The combat special effects are magical with flashy particle effects and vibrant mixture colors which are visually engaging. In some scenes, there are plenty of barren landscapes along with featureless environments and exploited sceneries. The designers have placed cactus in some places and you will get bored by the continuous scenes of plain brown desert. Also the halls and rooms encountered during game play are filled with identical gray material making it even worse. The bland environments and shallow character developments are some minor drawbacks of Crisis Core.

The music of the game is composed elegantly with some tracks which will bring the golden memories of previous versions of Final Fantasy. You must definitely turn on your headphones in order to enjoy the musical compositions completely. Another important feature is Crisis Core brings the experience of a Role Playing experience under handheld game. The game play is engaging, since the missions are very short and completed within five minutes and you can get very good rewards after each mission. Players lack control over leveling and limit breaks.. Final Fantasy VII Crisis Core is definitely worth playing for beginners as well as the fans of FF series. No matter, whatever is said about Crisis Core, true fans of FF7 definitely love this game, which is the prequel to actual Role playing games.

Crisis Core makes use of a turn-based rapid-fire combat system which feels similar to latest version of FF12. The tapping of X button is used for confirming every action during every turn and at same time, you can control your character in real-time. You can use action points for physical damages as alternate to mana for blocking attacks and to prevent damages. Since the pace is frenetic, it appears like real-time combat but you can also have experience of Role playing game with turn-based system which allows the players to use various menu items to execution actions for the characters in the game.

Crisis Core has amazing 3D redesigns of actual environments from FF7 and any player will feel nostalgic while moving through premises of Shinra Headquarters which has been re-created accurately in this game. Crisis Core has similar style and overall design as its predecessor FF7. Overall the Crisis Core game has a poignant story with an amiable spiky-haired protagonist Zack Fair who attracts everyone with his stylish combats using his powerful sword.

Final Fantasy VII Crisis Core is a must play for every PSP owner who loves to play role playing games The production design, voices and pre-rendered cut scenes of the game are awesome.

Plot: 8/10
Game Play: 9/10
Battle System: 8/10
Graphics: 7/10
Music: 8/10
Sound Effects: 9/10 

Japan		USA			Europe
Europe (Platinum)			Japan 10th Anniv. Ed.