FFVII Crisis Core – Part 70: Becoming a Hero

Summary: Final thoughts on FFVII – Crisis Core.

Protagonists

Zack was a great main character. Despite Cloud copying him in so many ways, he was so different! Upbeat, and optimistic, and energetic, and overall a giant goof. His arc was great too, and he got plenty of character development. One of the highlights of the game.

Angeal was well-defined as the noble and honorable mentor. I liked his big brother relationship to Zack. Strangely enough, I think I liked Sephiroth even more. He got so well fleshed-out here, adding all new dimensions to his character from FFVII – but dimensions that fit the character we knew.

This was way more dude-heavy game than I would’ve liked. Aerith was an occasional side character, but not a huge focus. Cissnei was a gem. Her moments always were great, though I don’t really feel like I got a ton of story or development from her.

The Turks (Cissnei aside) were fine supporting characters, but didn’t really see anything new from them.

HI BABY CLOUD YOU’RE SO YOUNG

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Antagonists

To the extent Sephiroth was an antagonist, he was basically what we saw in FFVII, so I won’t really talk about him here.

Genesis is the new guy. He was fine enough, but his LOVELESS shtick really did grate on me after a while. I also never really felt all that clear on his motivations or what he was doing beyond “something something Goddess” for the most part.

I still appreciated that he never went full heel, and that he still sort of wanted to be friends with the heroes.

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Gameplay

A few points here:

#1) The action was great! I was hesitant at first since it felt like such a departure from what defines FF games for me (the party turn-based combat) but I grew to enjoy it for what it was. It felt more interactive than the turn-based combat too, since I could avoid and adapt to attacks rather than just trading shots statically.

I still like turn-based as the default, but this was a nice departure from it. (I’ll admit that I hope the rest of the series isn’t like this though and that this was just a break/experiment.)

#2) Digital Mindwave. Loved it. Loved loved loved it. I feel almost weird including it in the mechanics section because what I liked most about it was the story behind it, the way it represented what was going on in Zack’s head usually more than any explicit spell he casts. It tied story to mechanics closely. This is my jam. YES PLEASE MORE OF THIS.

Doesn’t have to be in the form of DMW, but the more you tie story to mechanics, the more invested I am.

#3) Missions. I have more of a love-hate relationship with the mission system than with any FF system since FFII’s leveling system.

It has tons of potential. Small, bite-sized side missions and campaign sequences? YES PLEASE. A chance to optionally flesh out the game and story in new ways and experience new kinds of combat. I like it at first more than as it went along.

The system feels SO CLOSE to being great that it frustrated me more than it should have. Two chages would’ve it pushed it to greatness in my mind:

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-Scaling difficulty. Stuff felt either too easy or too hard frequently. If they just made a mission easy or hard relative to your character level, I would’ve been in like Flint.

-Fewer missions per campaign. The system felt incredibly bloated, stuffed with filler missions that didn’t need to be there. It diluted the story tremendously and made the system feel super grindy. How many times do I need to fight the remnants of Wutai and Genesis’s forces before I get the point? Even something as simple as making all campaigns three missions instead of six would’ve gone a long way.

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I hope they incorporate this system into future games, with improvements.

A couple of dungeons that stuck out to me: the whole Depths of Judgment, and the Shinra Mansion. Unique art, environments, gameplay, exploration, puzzle solving, limited combat.

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Music

Not a whole lot of original music sticks out to me. I like some of the boss music, especially the Sephiroth version here, but most of the music I enjoyed was music drawn from FFVII.

My favorite song by far:

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 Art/Graphics

Beautiful. I’d never seen graphics like this before, and it was a treat. The mood of the Shinra Manor again is a highlight here, and the Depths of Judgment as well.

I didn’t like how I had to see the same zones a million times in the missions. Same generic corporate building, same plains, same cave.

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Length

Seemed about right. Longer than I was expecting at just over 35 hours, with the potential to be a lot longer had I gone through the missions more thoroughly. Didn’t really feel anxious, like I wanted the game to end, before it did.

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Replayability

Pretty high. I don’t know that I’d care about doing the main story again anytime soon, but the hard mode and TONS of missions gives it replayability if I’m in the mood for a pure mechanical challenge.

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Story

It was cool to see the backstory of some characters from FFVII. Not my favorite overall story because I wasn’t a huge fan of Genesis. The parts of the story that focused on Zack’s character/development, and his relationship with Angeal (and especially his relationship with Cloud) were great

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Final Thoughts

A good, solid game! A bit unfocused and stretched-out. Some new and awesome mechanics and a unique style. Zack was a true highlight, and worth the cost of admission alone. Comparable in many ways to FFIV: The After Years (but better).

One of the greatest and most emotionally charged endings of any FF game yet.

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Next time: Time for a new game next week! Final Fantasy VII – Dirge of Cerberus. No clue what to expect from it.