Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII Review * * * * +

Well after years of debate with my fiscally responsible self I went I bought a Sony PSP on the weekend and at the same time I picked up Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII. At this point I have to make a confession, I have never played Final Fantasy VII.

This can come as a shock to those who know me as I'm a game geek who really likes things like Cyber Punk, Kung Fu, and Anime. Being an official member of the Final Fantasy VII fan club would seem to be a logical conclusion. However, when FF VII came out I was too busy ensuring I could eat to spend time and money on video games (sad dark days I tell you). When I did get into gaming again I leaned towards action over rpg. In fact, its only the introduction of action/rpg hybrid games that slowly made me begin to appreciate the rpg format. Still, the classic turn based rpg format had better have an amazing story to keep my interest.

Although, I've never played Final Fantasy VII I have always been aware of its existence and the ground breaking impact it had on the gaming industry. Plus what little I knew of the storyline and characters made me always think I should play that game someday and after listening to the music at the Video Games Live concert it's become more of a need. However, the desire to play with my new PSP overrode the desire to dig out our PS2 and search for my wife's copy of Final Fantasy VII so I decided to pick up Crisis Core for now and put off the Final Fantasy VII goal until later.

The story in Crisis Core occurs 7 years prior to the events in Final Fantasy VII and you play Zack Fair who to my understanding is only briefly mentioned in the previous game. That's about all I'm going to say about the storyline as I'm not done the game and I don't want to spoil the game for you. I will say that at first Zack comes off as a naive fool but as you play the game I'd be damned if his character doesn't really grow on you.

Crisis Core itself is an action/rpg hybrid and not a turn based rpg game. I didn't realize that till I hit my first battle sequence and had to quickly adjust to the realization that the enemy was not waiting for me to pick an attack. Personally, I'm a big fan of the action/rpg hybrid because as I mentioned earlier the turned based rpg game rarely keeps my interest. While fighting you have HP (health), MP (mana), and AP (action points). AP is new but it's kind of like a rogues energy in Warcraft: every dodge, block and some power attack moves use AP and once your out of AP you can't perform those moves anymore. The other factor when battling is the Digital Mind Wave (DMW) think of this as the luck factor. The DMW spins away in the top left corner and at times hits the right combination that rewards you by upping your standard abilities but once in a while a combination hits that results in Zack performing a super move that can save your ass. Plus this is when Sqare Enix inserts some cool video of your dude amping up and executing the move. you have no control over the DMW other than the fact that more experience you get the more likely it will help you out.

In the game you have the main story arch missions but you also have access to side missions which are kind of like the jobs and quests in Fable. You can access the missions from any save point and I would suggest doing them as they amp up your abilities and give you some nice potions and materia. At first I thought the side missions were an annoying distraction to the story but I've come to appreciate them more and more: if you have only have a few minutes to spend gaming you can fire up Crisis Core and knock off 3 or 4 side missions in 15 minutes. The problem with the main story arch is you can only save at save points which doesn't allow you to just up and quit.

There are a few weaknesses with the game. One the graphics are amazing except for the background environment: it's pretty boring. Two, the DMW videos are cool but if you keep getting the same sequence for the same super move it gets old fast.

However, I'm uber impressed with this game and it definitely appeals to Dragon Ball Z loving side of my personality. After I'm done I'm pretty sure I'll finally play Final Fantasy VII with a lot of interest just to finish up the story.

I give Crisis Core 4.5 stars out 5