Videogame Review: Crisis Core Final Fantasy VII

Apr 15 2008 By Richard Mooney

Final Fantasy VII remake? Not quite, but Crisis Core is the next best thing

OVER ten years ago a blonde, spiky-haired, cyber-punk leaped of a train at the Midgar Sector-one Mako reactor train station and into an easily won battle against two Shinra security guards.

With giant Buster Sword in hand he made his way into the reactor along with the rebel group AVALANCHE and onto a quest that would see him be the hero of one of the greatest video games ever concocted.

That was December 1997- I was 11 the first time I played as Cloud Strife in Final Fantasy VII.  More than a decade later we play as Zack, Cloud’s mentor, in the Final Fantasy VII prequel, Crisis Core.

A Final Fantasy title is never actually final- so far there are twelve in all with a thirteenth due out later this year. Each has an original story, new characters and a unique gameplay system.

The seventh was released in 1997 on the original Playstation and quickly became one of the best selling video games of all time.

In 2003 Square Enix, the games creator and publisher, gave its team of developers a chance to expand on the story of one the Final Fantasy titles in an experimental marketing strategy. Lead producer Yoshinari Kitase and Character Designer Tetsuya Nomura immediately suggested Final Fantasy VII.

This lead to the Compilation of Final Fantasy VII: a series of digitally created projects across various mediums. The first being the brilliant Advent Children, a computer animated DVD sequel to Final Fantasy VII, then came Dirge of Cerberus on the Playstation 2 with it’s fascinating story and mediocre gameplay. Both expanded on the Final Fantasy VII universe, but did not do the original game justice.

Exclusive to the PSP, Crisis Core is a direct prequel to the story in Final Fantasy VII and is the best Japanese RPG of the last 5 years.

You play as Zack Fair, a member of an elite army called Soldier, the military arm of the game’s fictitious global power conglomerate, Shinra. Zack only appeared in flashbacks in the previous games and nothing was known about him other than that he was Cloud’s mentor and best friend.

Crisis Core tells his story and explains the events that lead to Final Fantasy VII. Throughout the game you will encounter characters, old and new, with Yuffie, Aerith, Cloud, Vincent, Sephiroth, Reno and Rude all making a return in some form or another.

As you journey through your Shinra assignments you begin to learn more about Zack’s mentor Angeal, they mysterious Genesis and Sephiroth, all of who are members of Soldier’s elite 1st class.

This is absolute nostalgia for any fan of the original game and without giving too much away (anyone who has played Final Fantasy VII will know Zack’s fate), the story is both emotional and epic, spanning almost seven years.
It should be noted that Sephiroth later becomes Final Fantasy VII’s main villain and is widely heralded as the best video game bad guy of all time. In spite of this, Crisis Core casts a new light on his character and shows him as a hero for the majority of the game.

The technical aspect of the gameplay remains slightly similar to the original title, with materia remaining as Zack’s main source of power. The new twist on is that you can now fuse powerful materia to create even stronger materia. The depth and scope Crisis Core allows for customisation is quite frankly staggering for a portable title, adding hours of gameplay if you want to explore it fully.

Side quests are done through the Shinra mission system and are absolutely ideal for the PSP, with most not taking any longer than five minutes and there are literally hundreds of them.

Playing through the entire game, along with all the side quests and sub stories will clock your playtime at just under 100 hours.

The battle system is awkward at first, swapping Final Fantasy’s traditional turn-based system for a more action based Kingdom Hearts type approach. However once you get used the new system, the ebb and flow of the battles feels superb.

The look of the game is also amazing for a portable. The draw distance in Midgar in fantastic, the texture detail is phenomenal and the facial animations are spot on. The environments are varied and unique and the world feels alive. Then there’s the FMVs.

These are utterly jaw-dropping. They are on par with, if not better than most Hollywood produced CGI films out there. Each scene is meticulously detailed and at times, some of the characters look amazingly life-like.

The voice acting is also good throughout; however there are some clichéd moments like when Zack’s battle catchphrases, but these are quibbles if anything.

Not out here until June 2008, Crisis Core is already widely available across the pond and is quite frankly the best thing to happen to Sony’s portable system since Loco Roco and is the best Final Fantasy title since number ten in 2002.

A remake of Final Fantasy VII on a next generation console maybe a fanboy’s far off dream, but until that dream comes true, Crisis Core will do just fine.