Poor PSP. The poor little thing hasn’t had that many games worth mentioning in comparison to its Nintendo competitor, so I admit that it wasn’t that hard to pick which game in my library is the best PSP game I’ve ever played. At the same time, even after playing recent smash hits Ghost of Sparta and Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep, Final Fantasy VII: Crisis Core still holds its title of the best PSP game I’ve ever played.
Crisis Core won me over right off the bat with the initial train sequence. The visuals were simply stunning, the music was intense, and of course, there was that sweeping feel of deja vu from the opening sequence of FFVII. The following battle only compounded my overwhelming feeling of love, as it demonstrated this FFVII game was going to be action-based and not turn-based.
In addition, it was immediately apparent that Zack Fair was going to be a hero I would absolutely adore. He’s spastic, he’s funny, he wants to prove himself, and he wields a giant sword. The fact that he’s easy on the eyes helped a bit too. I’m really not a fan of the moody, emo heroes that proliferate most JRPGs, so playing a character who was so upbeat and, well, all over the place, was more than welcome.
Now, my never-dying love for Zack didn’t make me gloss over or ignore the problems with the game. For one, the story was incredibly short. I don’t know what they could have added to make it longer, considering they started off the game when Zack was just initiated as a 3rd Class SOLDIER and they packed plenty of background information in before the ill-fated incident at Nibelheim. Square Enix tried to buffer the short story with the ginormous number of missions for Zack to take on or not (although, how else are you really going to level up without them?), but the missions were repetitive in scenery, gameplay, and end goal. Aside for opportunities for leveling up, the missions are really only good for obtaining new items and materia.
And let’s talk about leveling up. I still have no idea what the developers were thinking when they introduced the little slot machine mechanic (DMW) for leveling up, limit breaks, and summoning, aside from the fact that slot machine games are fairly popular in Japan and in the States. If the game didn’t implement this method, it would have been downright close to flawless. I hated it up until the very end, until I saw the beauty of what the developers had in mind for the DMW as Zack was dying in his last battle. (OMG! Did I spoil a game that’s a prequel to a game nearly 15 years old?) I just wish they had found a better method of employing it. I wasted too many potions and cure spells due to an impromptu DMW Spin.
Despite all these little irritations, I still put in over 50 hours. Near the end of the game, I didn’t want it to end so badly that I tried to trudge through all of the missions. I made it to 62% completion before I decided it wasn’t fun anymore and it was time to watch Zack die.
Crisis Core is a lot like the movie The Titanic in that you know going in what’s going to happen at the end. What I wasn’t prepared for was how they were going to end it. I didn’t think I was going to be playing his final futile moments trying to fend off the Shinra Army. I started to tear up at the last section of the fight, when the lone violin sadly sang out, Zack was not moving nearly as well, and the DMW did its final thing (not spoiling that!). Of course and then you get to see from Zack’s point of view that a soldier shoots him in the face. When he handed over the Buster Sword to Cloud, the tears could not be stopped. The final cut scene lasted about 45 minutes, and I was a basket case by the time the end credits started.
I could not get what happened to Zack out of my head for days. I even started FFVII soon after so I could compare the similarities and see how much Cloud really took over Zack’s life. No other game, console or handheld, has ever affected me and my thoughts as much as Crisis Core. It’s also the only handheld game that I want to replay. I will complete all of those missions, dammit!
Even if you aren’t a fan of the Final Fantasy franchise, I urge all PSP owners to pick up this game and see how fantastically put together it really is, flaws and all.
Popularity: unranked [?]
11 comments