I know this game came out a while ago and there are already many reviews on it but I had to write about it. There aren’t many great RPGs on PSP so this was a must buy. Here are my thoughts on it, with the best of my writing abilities…

The story was amazing, the star of it is Zack, obviously… It mainly tells about his past, life, inspiration, hopes, love, friends… Angeal, his mentor, plays a big part in the story as he shows him to have honour and dreams, and to live by them. Angeal is also one of the 1st class soldiers with Sephiroth and Genesis. Small parts felt like they were a bit “pushed in” but it made it have more meaning and sense. Nonetheless, it’s a very appreciated addition to FF7’s storyline since it fills some missing parts of the story and, without spoilers, it’s the second Final Fantasy that was able to make me emotional.

Sepiroth (Middle) Genesis (Right) and Angeal (Left)

Gameplay-wise, it was great. The game works in chapters, where you have the main story and missions but anytime at a save point you can do optional missions that give you some nice stuff. Like items, mako stones, materia and you can level up with some luck.

There aren’t random battles, you get into an enemy encounter in specific areas without getting into a battle screen. Since it’s an action RPG, you can attack anytime you want unless the enemy does a limit break (in-game cutscene). The battle system gets a little time getting used to (like the reels, I’ll get into details a little later) and level up system isn’t great… You gain a level if it stop on 777. So it’s somewhat random though the chances for you to have a 777 increases if your level is lower than X when you’re at X part of the game.

 You have commends on the bottom right of the screen; attack, materia and items. You switch between them with L and R. You can also press O to return to attack. You also have reels with numbers and characters you meet through the game on it. If three of the same match, you can perform a special attack, get status effects or healing. Sometimes it changes into summon or other character mode (chocobo, as example). They each do different things, like Cait Sith gives you a “Courage Boost” that makes you have more critical hits. You have to find a special materia or item to get those special characters, though.

The numbers give you status boosts and effects, they can also give you limit breaks on health, mp and ap (points used for special attacks materia, talk about it later). They can also level up your materia or level Zack up.

You have few equipment… Most of it is materia and the rest is accessories cause you see, Zack is so badass that he doesn’t need new gear or weapons. XD Okay, seriously…

Now let’s talk about materia. You have magic, status change (ads atk, hp and so on) and you have attack ones (like jump). In this game though you can modify them by combining them to create unique materia, like dark firaga (poison+fire). You can also combine items with them like mako stones that ad up +1 attack power.

Like I said in the reels part, summons are made when they match on a reel. So you can’t use them anytime you want (well makes sense once you play the game). You have to fight them, then you obtain their materia, so they can appear on the reels. I haven’t them all but you have a few of them, like Ifrit, Phoenix, Bahamut…

The music, though not made by Nobuo Uematsu but by Takeharu Ishimoto, catches every moment’s feelings with the Crisis Core’s main piano theme remixes using other music styles, beats and instruments. It has also some FF7’s and, to my surprise, The Last Order’s (anime) music remakes. The soundtrack has a nice variety; pieces that are very delicate and could soften anyone’s heart and others with drums, guitar and violin mixed in, with a theme that would inspire pride, honor, freedom and courage. Some are even simple piano themes… There are many I like but those that got to me the most are “the Burdened”, “Night of Seclusion” and “The Price of Freedom”.

The graphics are really awesome, especially for a handheld game. They’re easily comparable to PS2 games. The cutscenes are gorgeous (like when you summon) and some of them just blew me away. This game was made by S-E so this kind of quality is expectable but it’s still amazing.

The voice acting was good, imo. They used the same people as in Advent Children and it works well. Zack is voiced by Rick Gomez, or as some of you might recognize as Gippal in FFX-2. He fits well the character’s personality and makes the emotional scenes credible. The most important characters have voices (like Cloud, Aerith, Sephiroth…) though this isn’t an aspect I find the most important but it is a nice feature.

It isn’t a huge game if you don’t do any side quests but I would reccomend doing them as you might find the game a bit harsh. You have a game plus option when you finish it: You can play it on hard mode, complete it 100%, collect stuff you forgot and such. So it makes it worth your money.

Anyway, it is truly a must buy for any RPG fans who own a PSP or consider getting one. You don’t need to have played through FF7 to enjoy it since it happens before it but there are some few fan service like some music remakes, scenes and secrets in it (like the tomb where Vincent sleeps in Shinra mansion basement).

In my own conclusion, I liked Crisis Core. It has a good gameplay and story. Zack is an awesome character and if you ask me, he’s a true hero, perhaps the greatest.

Oh and sorry if it was a long read, I tried to make it with the least amount of words as I could.

(written by lolita, member of ffu forum) Respect!!