Come on, you guys knew I was going to make a thread about this right?
Final Fantasy 7 Crisis Core was the only reason I bought a PSP back in the day, and it was worth it too. The original game was fantastic and easily the only spin off game worth playing. That weird PS2 title staring Vincent was garbage and the japanese only spin-off...was Japanese only so i could play it, maybe it's good.
Anyway Crisis Core has a very memorable story that I think fits in very well with the original FF7, and to this day I think it's the best fitting spin-off game in terms of how the story fits in and connects with the original material. Zack is an excellent and instantly likeable protagonist to a level that's quite painful knowing how the story ends. But I think what really works with Crisis Core's story is that it takes place around characters who don't know Shinra is evil. At least not the way we know having played FF7. Zack is a Soldier who genuinely just wants to be good and do good with all his capabilities. He's the guy that Cloud wishes he was and it really makes it all the more relatable when the wool gets removed from over his eyes gradually and he starts to realize that Shinra ain't something worth fighting for.
But I am not going to talk anymore about the story, if you know...you know, and if you don't go play this game. This Remaster does not change ANYTHING about the original PSP game in terms of the story or the structure of the game itself. There is a story campaign which is about 10 hours long, and then there are 300 shorter "missions" that you can to do unlock all sorts of other things to flesh out the experience. Being originally a mobile title, the majority of the content being these missions makes sense as the design was common on PSP titles at the time. Basically set up so the play could bang out a few missions while traveling via bus and train, thus the shorter nature. However the actual story missions are quite a bit longer and meant for when you have more playtime. It's a combination that really fit for the PSP at the time.
However now that we are playing on our consoles, it does make the game's format a little weird (though it still fits on the Switch).
But the real differences and upgrades to the game are all about the combat. In the original game combat wasn't...great. It was okay and it worked fine with the limitations of the PSP, but it's not combat that would hold up on a modern system at all by any means. Thankfully they've redone the combat almost entirely and it feels fucking fantastic. In the original game all combat actions were tied to a little menu bar on the bottom of the screen. This bar would change depending on your materia loadout and what items you had hot mapped to it. Navigating this bar was the hardest part of the game because you had to tap L1 or R1 to scroll through it and select your actions, this included normal attacks as well. The only free movement you had off the bar was a block, a dodge, and of course free running around the map with the stick.
Now however they've modeled the combat more around the FF7 Remake's combat system. This means that your block, dodge, and attack all have a dedicate button. Any abilities or materia equipped can be activated on the fly by holding R2 and pressing a face button which you've mapped to that skill or magic. For example say you have Cure on your 1st slot, this means to cast cure in combat you hold R2 and tap Triangle and boom. The actions are also extremely responsive, capable of being fired off quickly so long as you have the AP or the MP available. Combine this with a wonderful 60FPS and the combat becomes much much better than the original PSP game, however I don't think it's quite as good as the Remake's combat system. Despite that I feel like it works about as good as it possibly could given the way all the other systems work in the game.
The DMW aka the slot machine in the corner of the screen is still there and to be honest I still don't know how it works. But it spins and randomly will grant you many benefits in combat like infinite HP, MP, or AP, for go nuts moments, it also can trigger your limit breaks, summon spells, and it's also how Zack levels up. The downside to this is that tough fights can be made much harder because the DMW just isn't helping you at all, and there are also times it will give you shit you don't need like a limit break on enemies that are pitifully easy anyway. That being said though, I actually quite like the randomness of the DMW because the worst it can do for you is give you nothing, it cannot ever hurt you in combat which makes anything you get a bonus no matter what. This means you can get good at the combat without worrying about some random negative getting in your way, while at the same time giving you more to capitalize on when it does give you something great. Nothing feels better than stomping the shit out of a boss with you general combat skill, only to have the DMW suddenly grant you a summon or cool limit break to further fuck the boss up. It's a lot of fun honestly.
Again the characters are great, the story is great, and with this remaster the combat is the best it can possibly be while still being the same game. This is a fucking fantastic remaster and the perfect chance for people to play this game for the first time. I'm happy it's finally available on modern systems and it's available on everything so even if you don't have a ps5, it's on xbox, ps4, switch, pc, whatever you have it's on it....and I heard that it's great on Steamdeck if anyone has one of those things.
Final Fantasy 7 Crisis Core was the only reason I bought a PSP back in the day, and it was worth it too. The original game was fantastic and easily the only spin off game worth playing. That weird PS2 title staring Vincent was garbage and the japanese only spin-off...was Japanese only so i could play it, maybe it's good.
Anyway Crisis Core has a very memorable story that I think fits in very well with the original FF7, and to this day I think it's the best fitting spin-off game in terms of how the story fits in and connects with the original material. Zack is an excellent and instantly likeable protagonist to a level that's quite painful knowing how the story ends. But I think what really works with Crisis Core's story is that it takes place around characters who don't know Shinra is evil. At least not the way we know having played FF7. Zack is a Soldier who genuinely just wants to be good and do good with all his capabilities. He's the guy that Cloud wishes he was and it really makes it all the more relatable when the wool gets removed from over his eyes gradually and he starts to realize that Shinra ain't something worth fighting for.
But I am not going to talk anymore about the story, if you know...you know, and if you don't go play this game. This Remaster does not change ANYTHING about the original PSP game in terms of the story or the structure of the game itself. There is a story campaign which is about 10 hours long, and then there are 300 shorter "missions" that you can to do unlock all sorts of other things to flesh out the experience. Being originally a mobile title, the majority of the content being these missions makes sense as the design was common on PSP titles at the time. Basically set up so the play could bang out a few missions while traveling via bus and train, thus the shorter nature. However the actual story missions are quite a bit longer and meant for when you have more playtime. It's a combination that really fit for the PSP at the time.
However now that we are playing on our consoles, it does make the game's format a little weird (though it still fits on the Switch).
But the real differences and upgrades to the game are all about the combat. In the original game combat wasn't...great. It was okay and it worked fine with the limitations of the PSP, but it's not combat that would hold up on a modern system at all by any means. Thankfully they've redone the combat almost entirely and it feels fucking fantastic. In the original game all combat actions were tied to a little menu bar on the bottom of the screen. This bar would change depending on your materia loadout and what items you had hot mapped to it. Navigating this bar was the hardest part of the game because you had to tap L1 or R1 to scroll through it and select your actions, this included normal attacks as well. The only free movement you had off the bar was a block, a dodge, and of course free running around the map with the stick.
Now however they've modeled the combat more around the FF7 Remake's combat system. This means that your block, dodge, and attack all have a dedicate button. Any abilities or materia equipped can be activated on the fly by holding R2 and pressing a face button which you've mapped to that skill or magic. For example say you have Cure on your 1st slot, this means to cast cure in combat you hold R2 and tap Triangle and boom. The actions are also extremely responsive, capable of being fired off quickly so long as you have the AP or the MP available. Combine this with a wonderful 60FPS and the combat becomes much much better than the original PSP game, however I don't think it's quite as good as the Remake's combat system. Despite that I feel like it works about as good as it possibly could given the way all the other systems work in the game.
The DMW aka the slot machine in the corner of the screen is still there and to be honest I still don't know how it works. But it spins and randomly will grant you many benefits in combat like infinite HP, MP, or AP, for go nuts moments, it also can trigger your limit breaks, summon spells, and it's also how Zack levels up. The downside to this is that tough fights can be made much harder because the DMW just isn't helping you at all, and there are also times it will give you shit you don't need like a limit break on enemies that are pitifully easy anyway. That being said though, I actually quite like the randomness of the DMW because the worst it can do for you is give you nothing, it cannot ever hurt you in combat which makes anything you get a bonus no matter what. This means you can get good at the combat without worrying about some random negative getting in your way, while at the same time giving you more to capitalize on when it does give you something great. Nothing feels better than stomping the shit out of a boss with you general combat skill, only to have the DMW suddenly grant you a summon or cool limit break to further fuck the boss up. It's a lot of fun honestly.
Again the characters are great, the story is great, and with this remaster the combat is the best it can possibly be while still being the same game. This is a fucking fantastic remaster and the perfect chance for people to play this game for the first time. I'm happy it's finally available on modern systems and it's available on everything so even if you don't have a ps5, it's on xbox, ps4, switch, pc, whatever you have it's on it....and I heard that it's great on Steamdeck if anyone has one of those things.
