Well… after playing this game like crazy over the past week I’ve completed my first play through of Final Fantasy VII Crisis Core.
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Originally Posted by JET73L
How is it, to anyone who'se playing? Game live up to expectations? Battles, voice acting, etc. up to par?
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I would say the game's strengths lay within most aspects of the battle system. So no worries there JET. The materia system in CC allows such a diverse range of attacking skills and magic that Zack’s combat style can be as varied as you like. I was worried that only having one player in combat would get boring, especially since the original game has three, but things stay fast-paced enough and new that it never gets dull through the whole game. What is very nice about this game is the Materia Fusion option available part-way into the game. Materia and Accessories can be modified to alter Zack’s status rankings, and this can lead to some very dramatic character changes. By only a third of the way through the game I was able to raise Zack’s ATK rank so high that I was already taking off 9999 HP with critical hits (and my HP were also near 9999). Similarly, in not an unreasonably long time his SPR could also be raised so high that even the most gruesome attack from the strongest monster would be but a scratch to our hero. A little over the top? Perhaps, but I just attribute this one to the nature of the SOLDIER personae.
The missions play a large part in this game. This is the meat of the game I must say and is how you level up. It is also where you find most of your useful items such as Elixer’s, Phoenix Down’s and many of the more rare materias. There are some fun battles to take part in here, such as many battles done in the Slums, as well as other familiar locales such as Wutai, the Chocobo farm outside Kalm, Junon, and Gongaga. I also enjoyed an encounter on what I perceived as the same boat which Cloud and company traveled upon outside of Junon Harbour in the first game.
And woah!!!… I had no idea Zack also moonlighted as an
Abercrombie & Fitch model at Costa del Sol. Complete with an army of sahagins and wielding nothing but a beach umbrella. Fantastic.
The cinimatics are top-notch. My favorite is the opening mission sequence. But there are many other good ones as well and, as expected, they are somewhat randomly dispersed throughout the game much as they were in
Dirge of Cerberus. I thought the voice acting, as you inquired, was very well done. The voices of the familiar character’s such as Cloud and Aerith are familiar from the Advent Children predecessor and the theme song by Ayaka is in my opinion the best lyric-based song any FF title has ever had.
The character development is just as good and involving as any computer animated film these days. Zack turns out to be a very empathetic character whose story I really enjoyed unfolding. We see that he is very naïve, eager to learn, and pure of heart… but he’s never about to be pushed around. I really liked the teacher/protégé relationship with Angeal. And his relationship with Aerith gets lots of play-time. And… we also have near moments of brilliance, I believe particularly when we see Zack’s friendship with a SOLDIER named Sephiroth, who, prior to the events of Nibelheim, we see is himself struggling to be a man.
Oh, and lots of cameos folks. I just knew Cait Sith would pop his little fuzzy head up eventually. XD
The music is grand. It is a mix of music that is unchanged from the original game, to remixed versions of many of the original themes, to new compositions which totally rock. Overall, I believe the main intent of this game’s score was to keep a nostalgic audio connection with what Uematsu created with the first game. Crisis Core succeeds in this.
As enjoyable as it was there are a few things that bother me about the game. I hate to say this… but there is almost too much story here. Basically all of it will of course be enjoyed by the hardcore fans, who I no doubt will be debating the many theories and aspects of VII forever in forums such as this one. But for the average gamer who has either never played the original VII or who simply does not remember the finer details, will soon get bored with the abundance of speeches in this game. I have to admit that I myself was occasionally tapping that X button a little too frequently in a few passages in this game, LOL.
I also have to confess that as much as I loved the battles, I got very tired of the new DMW system after the thousandth time. I’ve seen those slots scrolling so many times now that I never want to step into a casino again for the rest of my life. I also didn’t like how you couldn’t control when to stop the slots. If you could this would of at least added a personal new challenge to this time consuming part of the game. And another thing… the woman’s voice which says “
Activating Combat Mode” and “
Conflict Resolved” at the beginning and end of EVERY SINGLE BATTLE started to kinda bug me after hearing it a billion times.
There is also one other tiny flaw which I just simply cannot let slide by. In my opinion there is a particularly miss-cast new character by the name of Cissnei. Unfortunately she completely stood out as the black sheep in this little romp. She simply does not fit a convincing profile of a Turk, and perhaps when you play this game you will either agree or disagree with me… she expresses moments of complete selflessness and friendly aide which I thought were simply missed opportunities for CC to make a meaningful contribution to the underlying Turk under-story of the VII compilation. I kept thinking
‘What happened?!! This is what you guys are giving us for representing the Turks in this part of VII?’ We get a lot more REALISTIC character development from lesser characters, such as a 2nd Class SOLDIER named Kunsel who you primarily only communicate with via email. Hmm... but only a small scar on the Crisis Core story that I just have to put out there. :P
But I must say that these are somewhat minor flaws in an otherwise extremely enjoyable title.
So… I think this game has some major replay value, which is an experience I havn’t felt in most new games I have played recently.
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Originally Posted by Miss Lockheart
From what I've seen it does look very promising, yay for Bahamut in cinematic form!!
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Yes, there are of course a lot of the usual Final Fantasy treats that the fans love so much, and they of course sneak in occasionally throughout the story. (don't forget to equip your Ribbon
) Although I've never been the biggest fan of the summons, they have of course always been one of the fun trademarks of the series, and in CC the fans get their fill. Bahamut is probably the coolest summon in this FF game I’d have to say. (you even get to fight him, BOOYA!
)
This time round VII I also particularly enjoyed the free range to move between the upper and lower plates of Midgar the SOLDIER status allows you. The new 3-D rotatable environments have the same nostalgic feel of the original game. The Shinra building holds the same sterile factory feel, and the slums is still seeping with the gritty fantasy-punk look we’ve come to remember… need to get a
Tissue in the Slums?… you still go to the same place.
So what is my ultimate conclusion?... I love this game. It is a lot of fun and I believe it really does add a lot to the VII storyline. And since it is a prequel of sorts, I believe that anyone can enjoy this game with a clean slate, not just fans of the original.
Oh, and I am left but with one last undying question… If all those degrading SOLDIERs only have one wing, what stops them from not flying in nothing but circles? I REALLY DON'T KNOW, CAN ANYONE TELL ME? KUPO!
Miss Lockheart:"Get over yourself, Leon!" snapped Axel. "I have a job to do. Didn't come here expecting a psyche lesson from a guy who likes fur collars..."
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