Hello all!
Most members on this site know that I love Final Fantasy VII and all related products.
So I was able to purchase Crisis Core yesterday evening, and have been playing it non-stop. I've sunk about six hours into it, but three of them has been doing the side missions, getting new materia, etc. So here are my impressions:
Graphics:
The game is visually stunning. It's so beautiful. If there is one thing that Square Enix knows how to do, it's make a beautiful game. The in-game graphics and cut-scenes are stunning, but the pre-rendered ones are even more so, the quality of those scenes ARE on par with those of the movie Advent Children.
Story:
I'm not too far into the story right now, but I can see where it's going. It's okay. I mean, maybe it get's better as the game progresses, but right now, it's pretty meh. I love it because I love all things FFVII, but if you don't, then you probably wouldn't care too much for it.
Audio:
The voice acting is very good. Zack's voice is slightly annoying, but not overly so, he fits well within the "annoying videogame protaganist" slot fairly well. The rest of the voice acting is quite good also, and it's not hard to follow. Some of the lines are cheesy, but most of these lines are delivered from Zack, so it's expected.
Gameplay:
The game is quite fun. Some people may think that the game is a button masher, but it's not really that. I can see where some have said that the game is "too easy", but I've died a few times on normal. Maybe that means I'm not that good at the game, but I think that the game has a good difficulty curve. The one major gameplay gripe I have is that the game doesn't do random battles, but at pre-determined areas on the map, but if you run over the same area again, you get into a fight again, which can get quite annoying if you see you missed a item chest, or some other important thing. One excellent thing about the fights is the fact that there are no loading times, Zack pulls his sword out and you start fighting, then it's over and you move on, NO LOAD SCREENS BETWEEN FIGHTS, which makes the game awesome. The portablility of the game shows too. Save Points abound, and if you want to just play a little, but feel as if you accomplished something, you can do the side missions which can be as short as 5 minutes, but as long as 15.
Conclusion:
All in all, Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII is a great game. But it is fan service. If you weren't a fan of the original FFVII, then I don't see why you would purchase this game, but for the 10 million or so FFVII fans [According to VGChartz], then I don't see why you wouldn't own this game, even if you don't own a PSP, you owe it to yourself to buy this game if you consider yourself a fan of the series.
