Well, I just beat Crisis Core just seconds ago, so it's time for a review.
This review is straight by the books in a gaming view point. I'll try to keep all
fanboy thoughts and influence out of the review.
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STORY 8.5
The story is well done. At some points though, you feel confused. I'm not going to spoil it, but at times you just have no idea what is going through the main casts minds. Zack is the opposite of Cloud. The only time he gets "emo" is when he is tired of everything being pushed onto him, but meh. The plot usually is pretty coherent. Seeing Sephiroth as a good guy before he goes insane is pretty well done. The tyies between Genesis,Angeal,Sephiorth, Zack, and even lLoud come together at the end, so you will have to play through to understand it all. You may feel a tear jerker at the end...
PLAYABILITY/CONTROLS 7.75
Let's get the !@#$% out of the way... During gameplay, the camera pretty much fails. You can turn the camera using L + R respectively but on inclined surfaces, it jumps around alot. Summons suck in this game. Don't even bother to find them unless you want to find everything in the game. The only one that is decent other than Odin(gotta love instant kills) is the Chocobo Summon which I got to damage all enemies for 9999. Everythingelse fails.
Leveling up. I actually like the new way to level up... You have what is called the DMW(Digital Mind Wave) that constantly cycles through portraits like a slot machine. If the outside ones match you have a chance you either:level up by getting all sevens, level up materia if the numbers match the corresponding materia slot ( like 2,2,4 would level up your second slot materia), limit breaks(the only ones that are good are Sephiroth's and Angeals...meh Aerith gives you invincibility but for like 20 seconds -_-), or it will randomly change to the summons slot system which is handled the same way.
Materia fusion is a very cool system. I enjoyed leveling up materia then fusing them together to make one powerful materia. But, that doesn't come until a few hours into the game. However, it does allow for making Zack a "tank" like I did for the sake of beating the game.
Battle...The battle system is pretty much like Kingdom Hearts...That tells it straight to ya...So, look up KH's battle system if you have never played Kingdom Hearts...Too much to get into...I'm lazy.
Mini-games suck..I'll leave it at that.
MUSIC 8.5
Most music was enjoyable, but the different rock music used for most battles is annoying, forgettable, and not very fitting in the FF7 universe. They did bring back the favorites: Aerith(Aeris) theme *sigh*, Fighting(FF7 battle theme), Still more fighting(FF7 Boss theme), the Shinra theme, and a few others...All remixed to a modern style instead sounding like some midi !@#$% piece of salty DICK...>_>...anways...Music was very good overall.
VOICE 8.0
Voiceovers were well done fore the most part...Sometimes, it seemed like whoever was doing the voice acting though, didn't know where to put emphasis at times...That's for all voiceovers. Didn't happen alot but I notice those kinds of things.
Graphics 10
Most beautiful game on the PSP. Uses Kingdom Hearts esc egnine for all the real-time cutscences. Though the environments may seem empty, they are very well made. I only had a frame rate drop at the VERY LAST fight in the game and that's because there is so much going on, but it doesn't effect the game.
Square once again proves its place as the GOD of CG movies, as they are found all throughout the game.
Summons also have a CG clip that plays each time they are used but these can be skipped(thank god)...
Replay Value: Moderate
Am I going to play it again? Hell, !@#$% yeah! But, the only reason to go through again is to beat all the missions or to try the game again on Hard Mode. That's pretty much it.
OVERALL 8.5
Stick's true to Final fantasy 7 but creates a new story that somewhat leads into Final Fantasy 7.
God, I love this game.
