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I am a major Final Fantasy fan and even though Final Fantasy VII isn't my all time favorite out of the series it definitely comes in second. The story in this game is so heart wrenching that I know a lot of the toughest guys who played this teared up. Now what we have with Crisis Core is answers to all the major questions a lot of you Final Fantasy VII fans were asking: What made Sephiorth lose control? What happened to Zack to make Cloud the way he is now? These questions and more have been answered in this long awaited prequel to the fantastic game that is Final Fantasy VII. Most fans were worried about the series not being "true to its roots" and worried about it being put on a portable device but honestly the great graphics that we now have with games makes this Final Fantasy a masterpiece even on a small system.

This prequel to the most beloved Final Fantasy game introduces you to characters that have made a huge impact on the world you knew in Final Fantasy VII. This game delves a little deeper into the minds of characters such as Sephiroth, Aerith, Angeal, Genesis, Cloud, but most importantly our main man Zack. Zack is a SOLDIER 2nd class who is aspiring to become one of the best SOLDIER 1st Class just like his mentor Angeal. After a mission in Wutai a large number of SOLDIER members go missing, including SOLDIER 1st Class Genesis, it prompts the Shinra Executives to deploy more operatives to finally end the war with Wutai and investigate the mass deseration. This is where you come in, not knowing what the full intentions are other than finishing your mission, you are thrust into a world of manipulations and doubts as to what is happening. Zack is very quick to act and always seems cheerful, never doubting his mentor Angeal, who goes missing after their mission in Wutai. Zack is selected as one of the SOLDIER members to investigate this disappearance, including the mass desertion, along side the Turks.

The battle system is in real-time so it makes battles a lot more interesting but they have added a little twist to their new system. This new addition to the battle system called the DMW or Digital Mind Wave. It is a slot reel system that continues to spin and stop constantly throughout battle by expending SP. It matches character or number panels that can activate a variety of special effects such as "Invincible" and "No MP Cost". The downside to this new addition to the system is that you can't manually control this and it will not spin or activate effects if your SP is insufficient. SP or Soldier Points indicates strength by Mako, you earn SP by defeating enemies and by DMW results. Though the battle system is a plus for being in Real Time, the DMW is a minus due to the fact that you can't control it.



Battles are one of the things you look forward to in playing Role-playing games because of the chance to defeat real pain in the ass enemies. Unfortunately quite a way through the beginning of the story battles are really easy, even during battle with summons like Ifrit and Bahamut its a breeze. When your battling you have to use a "side scrolling" technique where you choose your attacks or magic by using the left and right bumpers to scroll through your list but becareful with being button happy because you may end up using something that you didn't want to use. One interesting thing in this version of Final Fantasy is that you don't have team mates, thats right, you fight solo. "Well what happens when you die?" That is simple, if you have a phoenix down in your inventory the game will automatically use it to revive you which comes in handy but get ready to start over if you end up not having one on hand. With status ailments some are canceled over time while others you need to use elixirs or remedies to get rid of. Leveling up is caused by the DMW as well, so when you randomly level up thank the game for that, no experience points needed! As far as difficulty goes expect to have a pretty easy time for a little while in the beginning of the game.

High quality graphics in a game is something that people just have to have in any game now a days and I have to say the PSP definitely doesn't disappoint you in that area. Crisis Core has such amazing graphics I could sit there all day and just watch the cut scenes. Even the summons have amazing cut scenes that just make my mouth water. The graphics are seamless and the textures are pretty smooth throughout regular game play. So I give a huge plus on graphics (great job Square Enix!).
The storyline is pretty short but to the point. Mainly set to fill in the gaps and to lay all the Final Fantasy VII questions to rest. Despite what people think of Sephiroth from the original FFVII, he is a big softy in this one, which shows another side of him that you didn't expect or at least I definitely didn't but it explains why he went all psycho killer. One of the main things I enjoyed in this prequel was the addition of side missions for you to choose from. Everytime you get to a certain point you are able to gain another side mission to gain extra gil and items. Most of these side missions are pretty easy but they do slowly go up in difficulty and these missions are what add to the few hours of gameplay you will have.

All in all I think that if you have a PSP this is a definite buy especially if you are a Final Fantasy Fan you will not be disappointed.

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