Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII: The Thread

[AndrewTS 0]

Some things you may not know about Crisis Core:

 

-The game is headed by a first-time director, yet has incredible polish and production values.

-The script/localization is really good. It's often downright funny, too. Sephiroth, Genesis, and Angeal fangirls openly bicker over their favorite SOLDIER 1st Class dudes!

-The gameplay does an excellent job of balancing "action" and "RPG" in its battles. It's in real-time but mashing won't get you far except against really weak enemies. Think of FFXII with timing bars thrown out, and a faster pace.

-The lead character is interesting, well-defined and likable, despite some level of similarity to someone else (Cloud).

-The DMW wheel is, well, kind of hard to explain. It's not really random. You do earn real EXP, and it just *looks* random when you level up / materia levels up. Basically, the tougher enemies you fight, the more likely you/materia levels up.

-You can actually go over your HP/MP/AP limit, when you get a "Power Surge" you may gain more than your actual capacity. When you use/lose it you can't directly renew it past your limit, but it can give you a great advantage when you take on a really tough mission, but *play well* enough that you can survive anyway.

-Of course, if you liked anything about FFVII, you should get this. However, even if you hate it with every fiber of your being, it's still a fine game anyway.

[Guest Smues]

I've enjoyed it thus far. I've stopped progressing the story at the moment so that I can work on completeing some of the 10 billion side missions. I don't mind the DMW for leveling and power surges and such, but I don't like that it also controls summons. I want to be able to fry people with Ifrit at will damnit!

 

Edit: Another element of this game that I like is the music. Lots of remixes of FF7 themes, as well as completely acceptable new music.

[AndrewTS 0]

Yes, I want the soundtrack for this one.

 

http://youtube.com/watch?v=ieQ8vYmf9-g

 

The missions are great. Even though they're generally all the same as far as design/objectives, they're great for playing in 5-10 minute bursts, making it very well suited to a portable game. It's like grinding, but not really, because you're actually accomplishing these little objectives instead of running in circles.

[BUTT 0]

My favorite teen actress, Andrea Bowen, does the voice of Aerith in this game. She totally melts my ice-cold heart.

 

 

 

[luke-o 0]

If you ask me, the game is around 8 years too late and on the wrong format. Do people still use PSPs?

[Black Lushus 0]

Emo Fantasy 7

[Guest Smues]

My favorite teen actress, Andrea Bowen, does the voice of Aerith in this game. She totally melts my ice-cold heart.

 

 

And thank god for that. I can't imagine the pain this game would cause if they'd used the girl who did Aerith in Kingdom Hearts 2.

[Conspiracy_Victim 0]

Mena Suvari. Jesus she nearly put me to sleep.

[AndrewTS 0]

Mandy Moore is still my favorite English Aerith, but Andrea's okay too.

 

I don't understand why Suvari was so bad, though. She obviously is good enough to do it, and she didn't even use her usual acting voice. Either it was poor voice direction (which I doubt, based on the rest of KH2), or she was literally phoning it in while on large doses of cough syrup.

 

Materia fusion seems kind of overwhelming. I figured out some pretty easily, like Cura, but others you might need to level up or master to get. Anyone have any highly recommended fusions? I like how you can preview what you get before fusing, but I've have to use them in battle to really evaluate them.

 

If you ask me, the game is around 8 years too late and on the wrong format. Do people still use PSPs?

 

Nobody asked you.

 

Yes, people still use PSPs. Yes, the best games usually get PS2 ports, but there are still a lot of cool exclusives and its emulation capabilities are great. It's got plenty of RPGs that either are really rare or weren't localized. It has a FF Tactics with improved localization. It has Valkyrie Profile. It has the never-before-released-in-US Popolocrois. It has Jeanne D'Arc. For now, it has Crisis Core and God of War Chains of Olympus.

 

Plus, I got mine for under 100 bucks.

 

Less ethical folks could buy the system and not pay for a single new game, though...

 

Emo Fantasy 7

 

Nice contribution.

 

Zack isn't emo. He's the single best lead character in a Final Fantasy game since Vivi.

[luke-o 0]

If you ask me, the game is around 8 years too late and on the wrong format. Do people still use PSPs?

 

Nobody asked you.

 

Yes, people still use PSPs. Yes, the best games usually get PS2 ports, but there are still a lot of cool exclusives and its emulation capabilities are great. It's got plenty of RPGs that either are really rare or weren't localized. It has a FF Tactics with improved localization. It has Valkyrie Profile. It has the never-before-released-in-US Popolocrois. It has Jeanne D'Arc. For now, it has Crisis Core and God of War Chains of Olympus.

 

Fair point and I will conceed that the emulation capablities are awesome. I do own a PSP but haven't used it since I finsihed Puzzle Quest. I just thought a game like this should have been released on a format with a bit more popularity rather than the PSP.

 

Emo Fantasy 7

 

Nice contribution.

 

Zack isn't emo. He's the single best lead character in a Final Fantasy game since Vivi.

 

Don't get me started on that jawa looking bastard. He may have had a decent story arch, but he was an annoying git.

[Black Lushus 0]

Emo Fantasy 7

 

Nice contribution.

 

Zack isn't emo. He's the single best lead character in a Final Fantasy game since Vivi.

 

that was more a crack on character design than anything else.

 

and Cloud is one emo motherfucker, if Advent Children taught me anything.

 

 

[AndrewTS 0]

Advent Children, like everything else that is a part of Compilation of Final Fantasy VII except Crisis Core, sucks and isn't worth anything but ridicule. However, ya--it was nice of them to piss away Cloud's late-game development just to make him an emotion wreck and give us some alleged dra-mah.

 

Don't get me started on that jawa looking bastard. He may have had a decent story arch, but he was an annoying git.

 

Suit yourself, but he's just a typical black mage design...

[luke-o 0]

Yeah, and all black mages look like jawas

[AndrewTS 0]

Something that sucks about this game: there's a stealth sequence. One that, surprise-surprise, doesn't work well with the game's control scheme. Actually getting the items would be a lot more doable if you to have a level of control over the camera you don't have--not because of the lack of a camera stick, but the inability to position the camera behind Zack when you're anyway *near* a wall.

 

However, you can nab the best items by taking a direct route and get to where you need to be in about a minute, so all things considered it isn't that bad. Plus, if you screw up all you do is have a fight and lose access to an item chest. If they run out you can just proceed anyway. However, *stop doing this*, game designers!

 

I've got the Buster Sword now, and I'm saddened since this means I've probably not got a lot of game left to go.

 

However, there's a new game +! Yay!

[Guest Smues]

Funny, I just completed that whole area myself and was bitching about the stealth thing all the way. I was saddened to see that the buster sword didn't give me any noticable increase in attack damage. I was hoping it would fuck shit up or, oh I dunno, GIVE TWO EXTRA MATERIA SLOTS? Square dropped the ball on that one.

[Anya 0]

Isn't it kind of weird that Zack goes through this whole epic game only to be killed by like two random Shinra guards?

[AndrewTS 0]

I wasn't counting on extra materia slots, because as it is there wasn't any more room for materia slots in the equipment menu. Plus, the FFVII Buster sword had a measly 2 (linked, not that it matters here, as you don't even have a separate armor slot) slots, although with it's size you'd expect more.

 

This amused me a little; the photo from Nibelheim in FFVII:

 

And notice Tifa in Crisis Core:

[AndrewTS 0]

Isn't it kind of weird that Zack goes through this whole epic game only to be killed by like two random Shinra guards?

 

I haven't seen the CC version, but in FFVII it was a barrage of machine gun fire at point-blank range that did him in, but in Before Crisis I heard it was a sniper bullet.

 

The entire genre is rife with confusing, selective nigh-invulnerability, though.

[Vyce 0]

Yes, people still use PSPs. Yes, the best games usually get PS2 ports, but there are still a lot of cool exclusives and its emulation capabilities are great. It's got plenty of RPGs that either are really rare or weren't localized. It has a FF Tactics with improved localization. It has Valkyrie Profile. It has the never-before-released-in-US Popolocrois. It has Jeanne D'Arc. For now, it has Crisis Core and God of War Chains of Olympus.

 

Plus, I got mine for under 100 bucks.

 

New or used? I was thinking of picking up a PSP in the next couple months.

[AndrewTS 0]

Used. New ones are like $199. Pawn shops may have 'em for $100-$120 on average.

[Thoth 0]

If you own a DS and a PSP, does that make you an asshole?

[AndrewTS 0]

Not sure I understand the question.

[Guest Smues]

Beat it last night. The end is a bit wierd. You know what's coming, but the way it happens is just...well, wierd. The ending cutscenes are awesome though, and sequeway into FFVII very nicely. Once I found out there was a +game option I stopped bothering with missions and decided to get 100% on them on my 2nd play through. And may I just say that the final dungeon SUCKS MAJOR ASS...especially when you're a retard and don't realize that you can hit the square button to see a map...oh and when you don't realize that half the fucking thing is an optional area. So I kept getting lost and turned around in the prison thing to discover I didn't even need to be there? WEAK. And the encounter rate is batshit insane in some areas. The game could use a 2-3 second minimum between encounters or something because it's horseshit that I get in a battle, win, take ONE STEP and start another.

[AndrewTS 0]

You can sidestep almost all random encounters by sticking to the walls.

[Guest Smues]

I tried that but I must just suck at it because it didn't work all that well. Especially in that room in the jail area with the research notes. God forbid I take one step without having to fight the four elemental crystal things for the 100th time.

 

 

[Thoth 0]

Not sure I understand the question.

 

I mean, if you own two portable systems.

[AndrewTS 0]

Not sure I understand the question.

 

I mean, if you own two portable systems.

 

I have more than that, actually. GBA SP and NGPC!!!

 

I tried that but I must just suck at it because it didn't work all that well. Especially in that room in the jail area with the research notes. God forbid I take one step without having to fight the four elemental crystal things for the 100th time.

 

It's trickier if the room isn't all square, though.

 

[Guest Smues]

Not sure I understand the question.

 

I mean, if you own two portable systems.

 

I've got 2 PSPs, a GBA, GBA SP, DS, GameGear, creamy spinach color GB, GB Color, and a Nomad. Oh and 2 virtual boys as those are kind of portable. I think just owning a PSP and a DS is fine.

[AndrewTS 0]

Plus having a PSP is like having a Nomad, Game Gear as well as portable versions of systems that didn't have portable versions...

 

Smues: 2 PSPs as in one haxxored, one 2 legit 2 quit?

[Guest Smues]

...You know I really need to do that. At the moment it's as in 1 legit and "had to buy a slim because the cocksuckers at Sony couldn't have conceived a way to get the video out on the original model oh no" and 1 "Wife spilled something on the d-pad and thus gave me an excuse to get that slim because the cocksuckers a Sony couldn't have conceived a way to get the video out on the oirignal model oh no."

 

But now that you mention it I really need to get back into the PSP hacking scene. Sadly I got out of it wayyyyy back when when i finally upgraded past version 1.6 or whichever one let you use the GTA exploit, so I've got a lot to learn probably.