I managed to finished the game just a little while ago… And frankly I’m impressed… And I obtained these photos from my run through the game…

Final Fantasy 7: Crisis Core talks about the happenings before the original game of Final Fantasy 7 which came out around a decade ago (thats a long long time ago)

And those who had played the original Final Fantasy 7 will no doubt be interested in the storyline of this game. Crisis Core tells out the story of Zack, who in the original game is already deceased (So you’ll already know somewhat how Crisis Core is going to end)

:Read on but be beware of spoilers:

Being in an elite group of soldiers (called SOLDIER), Zack and his mentor Angeal looks into the mysterious disappearance of another comrade Genesis. Crisis Core will also showcase how Zack first met with Aerith in Midgar’s Slums (and how there was chemistry between them), how Zack and Cloud first met, how Sephiroth found out about his birth from the Ancient Jenova cells, and how Zack eventually fell in the hands of Midgar’s army.

~Zack: his dream being: To become a hero~

Prepare to revisit places you have seen in the original game such as Midgar, Nibelhiem, and even Junon. There are also several familiar faces you will meet along the way (Such as Aerith, Tifa and even certain summons). Unfortunately, the game didn’t really showed one of my favourite character, Vincent Valentine… All you can find about Vincent is the coffin which he’s asleep in…

~Aerith (I love how she says HELLLLLOOOOO~~)~

The game still retains the usage of Materia (stones which contains magical properties). Expect to spend some of the time reorganizing and leveling up the Materia to make them more powerful. Materia fusion is introduced here at which you could fuse different materia together to power them up and even create new materia.

~Genesis (fan of LOVELESS)~

Unfortunately, since Crisis Core is a hack and slash type of game, there are no other playable characters in the game except Zack. To make up for this, DMW is introduced. In battles, this DMW will spin like a slot machine and your summons and special moves will be triggered when you get the right combination. The other thing to note about DMW is that your leveling up is also dependent upon it which means that it could be very very easy for you to level up or very very tough for you to do so. To enhance the playability of the game, missions are introduced. Now frankly speaking, playing the mission alone will take a few days at least to acheive 100% mission progress, but the mission mode eventually become very repeatative after a while. And certain missions tend to be really easy while some others tend to be almost unbeatable. I failed to beat one mission where the enemies can make a ONE-HIT-KO on you if you fail to evade the attack even after playing that level numerous times. There is also one mission at which you have to kill off 1000 Shinra Soldiers… That mission alone took me almost an hour to finish…

~One Act from LOVELESS.. Nothing should stop my return… to become the dew that quenches the land… to spare the sands, the seas and the skies… I offer thee this silent sacrifice~

I managed to finish around 48% of the mission before it became either too tough or too repeatative to continue.. And at that time I was already at Level 50… And could easily dispatch any other enemies in the main storyline… So hack and slash seems tedious after attaining higher levels…

~One of the battles in Crisis Core~

Storyline-wise… The game really cleared up a lot of uncertainties which I did have when I played the original FF7. One particular memorable scene which could be found in both games as well as the movie Advent Children is The Burning of Nibelhiem… I’m guessing that if there is an award or a ranking for the best fire burning scene ever… Nibelhiem scene will top the list…

~These two are around as well 🙂 ~

It also amaze me to see how close Aerith and Zack were… And how their relationship developed… And how sad the story was when Zack suddenly disappeared, not being to see Aerith… And how heartbreaking it was to learned that Aerith keep on writing letters to Zack for the four years that Zack remained unconcious inside Nibelhiem manor… And how the normally cold stanced Tseng, kept all the 88 letters that Aerith wrote for Zack… And how the Turks (hired arms that does the unspeakable) attempted to locate Zack and Cloud before the army in an attempt to save them… Crisis Core shows you parts of the story which you never really know about… Like how in the ending of Advent Children we see Aerith and Zack together waving goodbye to Cloud… It dawned on me that when Aerith died in FF7, she was reunited with Zack… And I’d always thought that its pity that Aerith died so early in the original game… But after watching Advent Children and playing Crisis Core, I felt that she is happy being with Zack again… (Especially how she wanted to have more time with Zack in Crisis Core)

~Aerith’s letters,in Tseng’s possession which never made it to Zack~

I’m also amazed at how the Buster Sword changed hands from Angeal’s father to Angeal and later to Zack and finally Cloud… How Zack leaves his hope and dreams to Cloud after he died… I’m also really disgusted at how the army managed to kill Zack off…

~Zack’s last stand… This scene was totally heartbreaking… Seeing your hero getting worn out and later shot~

Another intriging point is what really happened to Genesis… We saw him getting hoisted by 2 men who mentioned that he will become one of their brothers… And we could see that one of those men seems to have white/grayish hair… So my speculation is that could Genesis be one of those grayish haired guys in Advent Children… or possibly related to one of those guys?? Another mystery left unsolved…

~At least it seems he died peacefully~

Music and BGM-wise… Certain familiar tunes have been reworked and sounded even nicer than the ones before… And I still got teary eyes as the ending credits rolled with the BGM of Aerith’s theme and Cloud’s theme (Yes, I’m a soft one)

And the ending of this game shows where the original Final Fantasy 7 takes off… With Aerith selling flowers in Midgar and Cloud jumping off the train

~Cloud… the hero of the original FF7~

Another particular memorable scene was when Zack flew into the air (figure of speech) and just moments before the credits rolled… He asked… Hey… Do you think that I’m a hero now?? And yes Zack… I really think you are a real hero now~~

A great game which solves many unanswered in the main game and leave certain new ones… I believe that there’ll surely be another game about FF7 since the story has not ended yet…

Thank to Square-Enix for developing such a memorable game… Even after ten years the game is still going strong… You all are the greatest for coming out with the whole FF7 story… From Crisis Core till Dirge of Cerberus… The whole story is just amazing!!!

Anyone with a PSP out there…?? This is really a must play!!