I've played about an hour of Crisis Core now. Mostly on the way home on the train and bus, and then after that on my bed because I didn't want to stop. Some thoughts before I read the recent posts on the thread:

- This is the best looking PSP game ever, there's no doubt or opinion in this. It is a FACT.

- No dithering, good framerate, good camera, great animations, detailed models and backgrounds, perfect lipsync even in realtime cutscenes, good loading. All this on an OLD PSP.

- The gameplay is fun. A little random, but well paced. There's elemental strategy on enemies like in any RPG, and the lock on is pretty smooth. The battles are fast and fun, the first real mission was of a good length.

- Cutscenes are very well directed, music is great, and oh boy does this game look GOOD.

- Out of all the Compilation of FFVII games so far, this is the one that nails the mood of FFVII best. It feels like you're in the world of FFVII, from the characters, the locations, to the menus, and options, etc. Zacks is a silly dreamer wanting to be a hero, working in the ranks of Soldier, and the game offers an excellent look at parts of the FFVII world that fans would actually WANT to know, unlike the rest of the series so far.

- Production values are through the roof. If this was a PS2 game and released in the place of DoC, it would have outsold FFX-2 by now.

- Yes you heard that right, duckroll likes this game.

And goes on to say: 

Playing a little more, the most interesting point that strikes me is that this game is made to be both a game you will play at home at some length, as well as a game that is very portable.

Basically, the story part is the game is filled with long cutscenes, FMVs, dungeons, encounters, bosses, etc. This would be best played in an office () or at home when you have tons of time to spare to keep playing. On the other hand, the missions are completely seperate from the storyline.

As you play the story, more missions open up. You can access any mission from any save point and tackle them. They're shorter action-only scenarios which teleport you to various locations to either fight a bunch of enemies, navigate a mini-area, or fight a boss. Completing each mission gives you rewards, and also unlocks the next mission on the same branch.

Kudos to S-E for actually catering to both types of play.

So as you may have gathered, they like it, alot!

So they liked it or not ? :P Kidding , nice impressions , and this is my 2nd most wanted games afther CoO ... man I hope the march release date to the US and EU is true ( though I doubt it ) .

It looks like 2 of my most wanted games are now coming out in 2008 with CoO and CC.

I reckon Silent Hill Origins, Jeanne d'Arc and Wipeout Pulse will have to do me until then.

^^ Cool. Can't wait.

Coolness! I can't wait to get my hands on this game as soon as it drops in the States.

Only Silent Hill , Wipeout Pulse , Syphonfilter LS , Castlevani DXC , AVP , Jean D'arc , MHF2 , Medal of Honor Heroes 2 and Patapon for me . This are the only must have for me this year :P

BTW : nice new sig you have there davygee ;)

I'll be buying it. As Stickball and ioi said it's looking at around 1 million lifetime in Japan. Pretty good, but certainly not good enough for Leo-j to win his bet with me that it would sell 6 million lifetime worldwide.

Crap....I forgot all about half the good games out soon.  Logan's Shadow...of course...and Star Wars Battlefront Renegade as well...its starting to shape up really nicely as well.

Cheers, I just fancied something different and flung it together.  I may change it again soon. 

Man , how could I possibly forgot Renegade Squadron ... when it comes out wel deffinatly have o play a match together ;)

Oh , and wasnt Leo-js prediction 10 million ... 6 million , well , it has a chance for that IMO , not a lot but still a chance :)

Jeanne D'Arc is great. Be sure to get it. For me, the only other PSP games I'm interested in buying in the near future are CC:FFVII and Castlevania. I really dislike the Monster Hunter games... I'm not sure why they are so popular in Japan. As RPGs go they are mediocre.