u/BP_Ray

I played through Final Fantasy 7 a couple of years ago, was wowed by it, and finally got around to playing Crisis Core in preparation for playing the remakes.

Final Fantasy 7 Crisis Core feels like a really solid concept for the prequel that it is, especially for the medium it was originally developed for on PSP.

The idea of stepping into the shoes of a Shinra SOLDIER, engaging in the daily life of what that entails is neat. Some might argue unnecessary and perhaps milking Final Fantasy 7, but out of all the supplementary FF7 material, this one interested me the most.

I think while this game has It's ups and downs, it was more good than bad.

All-in-all, I think the plot beats in general worked well to deliver us to the inevitable terminus of this prequel, with drama that can at times be too melodramatic, also genuinely makes you truly feel something.

I'm actually a fan of prequels like this, where you know the conclusion is one that is painfully tragic, that soon everyone you see will be erased because almost all of their fates have already been inked, dried, and sealed by the sequel. It makes you feel like you have to really slow down and enjoy every moment you have because these good times won't last forever, hell, they'll barely last a couple of real-life hours.

So just like in life, where we know tragedy WILL strike, It's best to slow down and cherish what's here.

Like I mentioned, the concept of the prequel works best with the format it was originally developed for, PSP. On a home console, the idea of doing a bunch of list of bite-sized missions might be a bit repetitive, and in fairness, you don't have to do any of them, but for a handheld title, it just makes sense. Even on this home console release of the game, I found it best to just kick up my feet and put on some second-monitor content while I grinded away at the mission list as I let myself immerse into the daily work life of a Shinra SOLDIER.

But with the format also comes limitations. I think the game is just too short. I did like 15% of the total side-missions, which felt like a decent chunk given how overleveled I was with that paltry percentage, and yet I still finished the game in just 12 1/2 hours. But, It's an action RPG title built for a handheld console, so while I feel that format holds the game back in this respect, I can forgive it for that.

Zack as a character isn't exactly what I imagine from Final Fantasy 7, he's a bit more high pitched, chipper, a bit of a dork -- but that is part of the point I guess.

When you start the game he's not that guy you've seen in flashbacks in FF7 yet, he's only SOLDIER Second Class, and even when he makes First Class a couple of hours into the game, It's deliberately anti-climactic, he's only making it because two spots have just been vacated. But, even so, I was disappointed a little but he wasn't as cool as I imagined, but that might be a me problem. It makes me wonder if this prequel were made in, like 1998, what would Zack be like? I envisioned someone more similar to Gene Starwind, the protagonist of Outlaw Star, but a bit more heart of gold and country-boy charm underneath some of the rougher, masculine characteristics, but maybe It's just the scar and general 90's shounen character design from the original that painted that image in my mind.

But despite that, I like Zack, he's still a great character and by far the best written one in this particular game.

In general, there is this mismatch in Crisis Core with what I would expect from this concept, and what is actually delivered.

When I imagine playing as a Shinra SOLDIER, I expect to be regularly used as a tool to mow down the Shinra Corporation's enemies, the good, the bad, the inbetween. I expect to get to see from the perspective of a well-meaning company guy, some of the sanitized atrocities this dystopic monolith corporation gets up to in daily operation. I expect for a lot of sneering, biting satire, perhaps not as direct or extreme as something like Cruelty Squad, but at least gesturing towards that direction. Make it innocuous at first, but then slowly let the evil seep through.

And in fairness, there is a little bit of that. The company emails you can choose to read through offer up a tiny bit of satire and hints towards how awful of a company this is. But, the little bit of satire that is presented in this game, pales in comparison to how central that was to the Shinra bits of Final Fantasy 7. I'd have expected more from that in this game, not less.

Instead, the game glances over some of the more interesting parts of Final Fantasy 7 lore to focus more on character melodrama and lunatic rantings detached from any human relatability of characters like Genesis, Hollander, or Sephiroth.

It feels like most of the game you're actually just fighting Shinra because... I guess they're iconic as the baddies from FF7 so even if you ARE Shinra, most of the baddies you face will be Shinra robots or troopers in disguise or hacked, even before you reach the point in the story where the company is hostile to you. Take the opening mission where you're in a VR simulation where your enemies are Shinra troopers, but don't worry Zack, they're actually Wutai footsoldiers in disguise.

Come on, the premise for this game is that I'm a Shinra super soldier. Yesterday's allies are today's enemies. Why is the same iconography I was fighting in FF7 the same ones I'm fighting here even when I am a Shinra goon? There's always some excuse for it given by the game, but I'm not convinced. Zack ends up mostly insulated from the parts of Shinra we know to be evil, but I think It'd be more interesting if he had to end up seeing those parts in ways that slowly erode his faith in the company, rather than mostly dealing with some equally-evil fugitive before the Nibelheim crisis suddenly results in Shinra deciding to turn on him. That to me is far more interesting than hours of Genesis pretentiously rambling about heroes, gods, and angels.

Geez, I've ended up being really negative about this entire thing so far, but I did actually like the game. I guess It's just so easy to be negative because despite being a perfect fine game, Crisis Core feels like an underachiever in a lot of ways. Part of it due to the format it was originally developed for, and part of it due to just sanitizing FF7 in an attempt to milk it and any nostalgia players might have for it.

Like I said, I think Zack is a fantastic character even if he doesn't entirely line up with what I imagine him to be. The side characters in general are very likeable (even if I don't love how there's almost no non-sympathetic characters in this game given the premise), and all add their own flavor to the story and Zack's character development.

It takes awhile, but once you get to Nibelheim, I feel like the unsettling parts of FF7 that I love start to really rear their ugly head again. From that point onward the game is all meat, no filler all the way to the very end (Except for Genesis and Hollander refusing to just DIE) with such an amazing final sequence where you make your final stand as Zack against the waves of Shinra soldiers who have you cornered, and ready to execute you, no matter how many men they have to through at a First-Class SOLDIER.

It genuinely hit me emotionally doing that final battle and watching the final cutscenes play out. The game justifies It's entire existence off of that alone.

So I am a bit disappointed that the game doesn't live up to what I would want, but I can't stay mad at it, because It's still a solid game regardless.

I was thinking it was going to be a chemical mine since the only one that existed prior was in a mule camp much earlier in the game.

But, no, It's a small metal line.

On the same coast as the large metal mine.

A large metal mine on that coast that's actually connected to the monorail.

A large metal mine you get access to much earlier in the game.

WHY!?!?!

WHAT IS THE POINT!?!?!!?

WHY THE FUCK WOULD I WANT A LATE GAME, SMALL METAL MINE, ON THE SAME COAST AS THE LARGE METAL MINE, DISCONNECTED FROM THE MONORAIL!?

I'm not gonna lie, I'm tired of this place.

I'm tired of the way It's run. I'm tired of the moderators. I'm tired of the people. I'm tired of wasting time scrolling it.

But my biggest problem is everytime I leave here, I end up missing news and stuff related directly to my interests. I use this place to look at news for stuff for my games, stuff for the sports I follow, and other stuff.

That's what typically pulls me back. And then when I get pulled back by that, I typically stick around to comment and participate, too.