Jugabilidad algo tosca pero con un final apabullante
This review contains spoilers
[This will contain spoilers for both Crisis Core, and the original FFVII]
Something I don't see a lot of people talk about is how much that disc 3 super-secret Zack flashback cutscene in the original VII rips. Squaresoft's brazen over-dramatism manages to enrich a character with life in such a short time.. Zack is just a peppy boy who loves the sound of his voice so much that he can have a conversation with a comatose dude, and walk away from it satisfied. His death goes on to leave a paralyzed Cloud idolizing his lost friend, subconsciously glamorizing a life that ended without fanfare the moment he tried to escape the system.
Coming off of Crisis Core, the main thought in my head really was...
Did Zack even improve as a character after all of this?
There's some additions I do like here and there; the way Zack is afforded no agency by the plot - aimlessly hovering between the military he serves, and the war against it. The envy he feels for those who have the option to stand up for themselves; it's sooooo almost there. But the plot is just unwilling to express these feelings in anything less than an artsy cutscene. Like..."Those wings, I want them" is coooool but please, let these characters express some mundane natural emotion for once. Maybe I'll regret asking this sort of thing one day; disliking the vision of developers who perfectly capture angst both unspeakable, and awkward when spoken aloud. But every Kingdom Hearts game I've played has the clarity of sincerity somewhere in there. This game's just less well written than Kingdom Hearts
All of this game's problems stem from the way its narrative economy is distributed like the dril candles tweet. There is not a single chapter in this game that spends its time in the right places. When I streamed this to my friends, some of them joked about how often Zack says "huh?" - but it began to become a serious problem that despite playing a reactive role in the plot, Zack doesn't really have reactions. Zack's moment to moment dialogue never quite breaks out of just being another spunky Final Fantasy protagonist pastiche; it becomes obvious this is the spin-off none of the creatives daydreamed about on their lunch breaks. Nojima's side hoe. It's distressing seeing them show us the truth behind a moment like how Zack and Aerith began dating - telling it like the same military boy out of water love story that Cloud went through - and realizing that whatever vague idea I had in my mind was more creative than what this story had to tell. Cloud's entire arc is about him learning that he doesn't need to be Zack, so why do all of their life events have to parallel?
what's up with that one monologue from aerith about hating things that aren't normal. what the fuck lol
But the ending is good. I could nitpick it for sure. I'll at least acknowledge that leaving off on Cloud saying "I'm your living legacy" totally sucks ass, it's the exact opposite of what he needs to learn; he needs to stop trying to be other people. I still like Zack’s death in the FFVII scene more - the rawness of three lone officers gunning him down hits harder for me - but yeaaah, it's iconic. The scream into the fucking Zack AMV rules. But what gets me the most is that this scene isn't even better with the contents of the game. Crisis Core is not a good game, CRISIS CORE FINAL FANTASY VII FULL ENDING & CREDITS (HD) on youtube dot com is. This game was never even about Zack, it was about some other guys.
I think I would hate this game if I saw nothing in Angeal or Genesis. The entire narrative's run-time is cashed in on them, consistently choosing them over meaningfully expanding the few core details we knew about Zack. I think I got close to "getting" Angeal - obv a lot of commentary on wanting to follow the footsteps of flawed idols and the stuff - Genesis was just kinda funny, though. hes gackt up. i laughed rly hard when the game posited that genesis was in the room when sephiroth went crazy at the nibel reactor. But no matter how good of a time I can have watching some fun 2000s Square Enix cutscenes, there isn't a sense of fun in the moment to moment, to give the game any flow; the gameplay SUCKS!!!!!
in our heart or hearts everyone going into this knows at this point that the compilation is the equivalent to those netflix star wars spinoffs. most people are aware of this, and most people also seem to like it anyways. the truth is that what makes square enix unique is that they can't help themselves from imbuing all of their projects with heart. anyone who has ever cried to one of their mickey mouse games should know this. crisis core was always going to be a story about salvaging good human artistic passion from a game assigned to be trashy from birth, and i went into it with the most hopeful mindset i could.
and i dont know if i got anything from it
im still gonna be nostalgic for it in like 5 months
guys im going back to 7 rebirth and i still dont know what cissneis deal is im so fucked
Something I don't see a lot of people talk about is how much that disc 3 super-secret Zack flashback cutscene in the original VII rips. Squaresoft's brazen over-dramatism manages to enrich a character with life in such a short time.. Zack is just a peppy boy who loves the sound of his voice so much that he can have a conversation with a comatose dude, and walk away from it satisfied. His death goes on to leave a paralyzed Cloud idolizing his lost friend, subconsciously glamorizing a life that ended without fanfare the moment he tried to escape the system.
Coming off of Crisis Core, the main thought in my head really was...
Did Zack even improve as a character after all of this?
There's some additions I do like here and there; the way Zack is afforded no agency by the plot - aimlessly hovering between the military he serves, and the war against it. The envy he feels for those who have the option to stand up for themselves; it's sooooo almost there. But the plot is just unwilling to express these feelings in anything less than an artsy cutscene. Like..."Those wings, I want them" is coooool but please, let these characters express some mundane natural emotion for once. Maybe I'll regret asking this sort of thing one day; disliking the vision of developers who perfectly capture angst both unspeakable, and awkward when spoken aloud. But every Kingdom Hearts game I've played has the clarity of sincerity somewhere in there. This game's just less well written than Kingdom Hearts
All of this game's problems stem from the way its narrative economy is distributed like the dril candles tweet. There is not a single chapter in this game that spends its time in the right places. When I streamed this to my friends, some of them joked about how often Zack says "huh?" - but it began to become a serious problem that despite playing a reactive role in the plot, Zack doesn't really have reactions. Zack's moment to moment dialogue never quite breaks out of just being another spunky Final Fantasy protagonist pastiche; it becomes obvious this is the spin-off none of the creatives daydreamed about on their lunch breaks. Nojima's side hoe. It's distressing seeing them show us the truth behind a moment like how Zack and Aerith began dating - telling it like the same military boy out of water love story that Cloud went through - and realizing that whatever vague idea I had in my mind was more creative than what this story had to tell. Cloud's entire arc is about him learning that he doesn't need to be Zack, so why do all of their life events have to parallel?
what's up with that one monologue from aerith about hating things that aren't normal. what the fuck lol
But the ending is good. I could nitpick it for sure. I'll at least acknowledge that leaving off on Cloud saying "I'm your living legacy" totally sucks ass, it's the exact opposite of what he needs to learn; he needs to stop trying to be other people. I still like Zack’s death in the FFVII scene more - the rawness of three lone officers gunning him down hits harder for me - but yeaaah, it's iconic. The scream into the fucking Zack AMV rules. But what gets me the most is that this scene isn't even better with the contents of the game. Crisis Core is not a good game, CRISIS CORE FINAL FANTASY VII FULL ENDING & CREDITS (HD) on youtube dot com is. This game was never even about Zack, it was about some other guys.
I think I would hate this game if I saw nothing in Angeal or Genesis. The entire narrative's run-time is cashed in on them, consistently choosing them over meaningfully expanding the few core details we knew about Zack. I think I got close to "getting" Angeal - obv a lot of commentary on wanting to follow the footsteps of flawed idols and the stuff - Genesis was just kinda funny, though. hes gackt up. i laughed rly hard when the game posited that genesis was in the room when sephiroth went crazy at the nibel reactor. But no matter how good of a time I can have watching some fun 2000s Square Enix cutscenes, there isn't a sense of fun in the moment to moment, to give the game any flow; the gameplay SUCKS!!!!!
in our heart or hearts everyone going into this knows at this point that the compilation is the equivalent to those netflix star wars spinoffs. most people are aware of this, and most people also seem to like it anyways. the truth is that what makes square enix unique is that they can't help themselves from imbuing all of their projects with heart. anyone who has ever cried to one of their mickey mouse games should know this. crisis core was always going to be a story about salvaging good human artistic passion from a game assigned to be trashy from birth, and i went into it with the most hopeful mindset i could.
and i dont know if i got anything from it
im still gonna be nostalgic for it in like 5 months
guys im going back to 7 rebirth and i still dont know what cissneis deal is im so fucked
Ta wapo
Ahead of its time gameplay-wise
A good written piece after halfway through
A good written piece after halfway through
Read my review of the remaster/remake to see my thoughts on the game, as I try to keep the original in mind when I wrote the review:
https://www.backloggd.com/u/nicotilt/review/1532250/
The only thing I'll say here is that Rick Gomez hard carried this game and it's awful script and the gameplay/mission structure is technically more palatable here since it's on a portable handheld that was meant to be played in short bursts. Plus, I imagine this game looked pretty impressive on the PSP in 2007/2008, where it probably felt like you were playing a PS2 style game on the go. Other than that, you're better off playing the remaster.
https://www.backloggd.com/u/nicotilt/review/1532250/
The only thing I'll say here is that Rick Gomez hard carried this game and it's awful script and the gameplay/mission structure is technically more palatable here since it's on a portable handheld that was meant to be played in short bursts. Plus, I imagine this game looked pretty impressive on the PSP in 2007/2008, where it probably felt like you were playing a PS2 style game on the go. Other than that, you're better off playing the remaster.
this is my first final fantasy game, i went in knowing absolutely nothing and can i just say i love this so much. i havent actually finished it yet (im like halfway i think) but this game is peak if you treat it like a sitcom. just zack, a normal ass dude surrounded by theatre kids that act like stereotypical JRPG characters. the voice acting exemplifies this since they all sound like theyre in a shonen anime lol. gameplay is also fairly easy when you manage your levels properly. i got decimated in genesis' first boss and figured out i was underleveled, so i went and did all the missions, then went back and absolutely cooked him. peak game.
This review contains spoilers
I didn't really most of the new characters like Angeal or Genesis all that much even though they had their moments, I liked what they did with Cissnei and Cloud. They completely nailed Zack tho, his journey throughout the game was heartbreaking. They nailed Zack so hard he might actually be my favorite FF7 chatacter now. Combat was kinda stinky tho
“I made sure his lines would reflect that majestic sense of beauty. His words were so profound…they were often times beyond understanding. This was done in order to emphasize the fact that his thoughts are on a different level than those of normal human beings.”
Heil Sephiroth!
Heil Sephiroth!
This review contains spoilers
rest in peace zack fair, you would have loved strangers of paradise
i literally knew how it was gonna end but i still cried like a baby. I love you Zack
This game has it’s strong points for sure, but just has some things I dislike at some parts. I love some of the characters, voice acting and the combat, the story however is just alright with the exception of the beautiful ending. I also don’t like Genesis, but overall a 7.5/10.
Zack melhor personagem
Nothing Squeenix ever does will make me think Zack Fair is good and/or cool. In fact, the more I learn about him the more I start to actively dislike him.
There is a part of me that feels fundamentally opposed to all the "Compilation of Final Fantasy VII" stuff because FF7 on its own is such an exquisitely self-contained thing. Like, they did a great job with it! We don't need every little detail explained and expanded upon! It frequently makes things worse! Sometimes you do still end up with something that is Cool and Fun (Advent Children) but mostly you end up with stuff that is Bad and Sucks (Crisis Core).
I didn't realize just how much this game pushes Zack and Aerith together. I had always assuming the fandom shipping them was based on some crumbs but they are pretty clearly Together in this, huh. I am choosing to ship Zack with Tseng out of pure spite because both Aerith and Cloud deserve better than this dumpster boy.
Genesis constantly dropping in to quote a play is very stupid and funny. Genesis walked so V Devilmaycryfive could run.
weird prank from squeenix to name the trans woman "Cissnei" but okay
There is a part of me that feels fundamentally opposed to all the "Compilation of Final Fantasy VII" stuff because FF7 on its own is such an exquisitely self-contained thing. Like, they did a great job with it! We don't need every little detail explained and expanded upon! It frequently makes things worse! Sometimes you do still end up with something that is Cool and Fun (Advent Children) but mostly you end up with stuff that is Bad and Sucks (Crisis Core).
I didn't realize just how much this game pushes Zack and Aerith together. I had always assuming the fandom shipping them was based on some crumbs but they are pretty clearly Together in this, huh. I am choosing to ship Zack with Tseng out of pure spite because both Aerith and Cloud deserve better than this dumpster boy.
Genesis constantly dropping in to quote a play is very stupid and funny. Genesis walked so V Devilmaycryfive could run.
weird prank from squeenix to name the trans woman "Cissnei" but okay
I love FF7 and seeing more of those characters is really cool, Aerith in particular was great and her relationship with Zack was perhaps the highlight of the whole game. Getting to know more about this Zack that we barely knew existed is awesome too. Out of the new elements I did like the figure of Angeal. The ending is absolutely goated too.
But for the negatives: the gameplay gets really boring after a while, it's slow and repetitive. DMW system is cool at first but just gets annoying over time. The story is honestly not handled that well, it tries to push a lot of unneccessary things onto the original's narrative and while most are just pointless some are straight up harmful: the worst offenders are Genesis andthe whole copies thing. It also doesn't take advantage of the great basis FF7 posed: Cloud and Sephiroth are found in a really interesting and different setting but they get way too little expabsion, and that is also true for most sttory elements that we knew already. This is particularly egregious in Nibelheim, where it's basically a worse retelling of the original's flashback (with a bad Sephiroth boss added. How do you even screw up a Sephiroth boss?).
Overall game is carried by Zack and being set in one of my favourite fictional universes ever.
But for the negatives: the gameplay gets really boring after a while, it's slow and repetitive. DMW system is cool at first but just gets annoying over time. The story is honestly not handled that well, it tries to push a lot of unneccessary things onto the original's narrative and while most are just pointless some are straight up harmful: the worst offenders are Genesis andthe whole copies thing. It also doesn't take advantage of the great basis FF7 posed: Cloud and Sephiroth are found in a really interesting and different setting but they get way too little expabsion, and that is also true for most sttory elements that we knew already. This is particularly egregious in Nibelheim, where it's basically a worse retelling of the original's flashback (with a bad Sephiroth boss added. How do you even screw up a Sephiroth boss?).
Overall game is carried by Zack and being set in one of my favourite fictional universes ever.
Me? Gongaga.
Combat is easily broken once you get the Costly Punch materia and one shot everything in the game but until that point it was great. Also had a super emotional climax that worked really well with the soundtrack and voice acting.
Combat is easily broken once you get the Costly Punch materia and one shot everything in the game but until that point it was great. Also had a super emotional climax that worked really well with the soundtrack and voice acting.
im biased
A game that was made entirely for its final scene. Everything else is there to justify having a whole game leading up to an important but very well hidden scene from the original Final Fantasy VII stings as hard as possible.
This game has some fun world building in it, and when it's adapting known backstory from FF7 it's pretty okay. All of the new stuff is... pretty bad. Angeal, Genesis, Hollander, all of these new characters feel like creations from a fan-fiction. At least they nail Zack pretty well. He's a very likeable guy who is also the world's most normal man surrounded by theater kids who can't shut the hell up.
Speaking of Zack being likeable -- I wonder if the final Remake game will have any writing addressing how Zack, despite being likeable, did a lot of bad things under Shinra's employment. It was all through the lens of him believing he was being a hero, of course, but that honestly makes it worse. I think the series will continue to view him as another cool guy, but I'd love his Shinra service and how he had a part in the war with Wutai to get examined more.
This game has some fun world building in it, and when it's adapting known backstory from FF7 it's pretty okay. All of the new stuff is... pretty bad. Angeal, Genesis, Hollander, all of these new characters feel like creations from a fan-fiction. At least they nail Zack pretty well. He's a very likeable guy who is also the world's most normal man surrounded by theater kids who can't shut the hell up.
Speaking of Zack being likeable -- I wonder if the final Remake game will have any writing addressing how Zack, despite being likeable, did a lot of bad things under Shinra's employment. It was all through the lens of him believing he was being a hero, of course, but that honestly makes it worse. I think the series will continue to view him as another cool guy, but I'd love his Shinra service and how he had a part in the war with Wutai to get examined more.
{This gane, Made me}
For a prequel, this game manages to hold on its own as one of the best RPGs ever. I loved Reunion, but I ADORE this game. While it is a bit dated, it's still worth your time. Emulate it, or get an original copy.
i like how its easy to become overpowered very early in this game
It doesn't have the best gameplay but it has an amazing story if you like the world of final fantasy 7. Great prequel.
Zack >>> Cloud.
Zack >>> Cloud.
The random encounters are fucking infuriating, but the combat Is better then og FF7. The story's pretty good if not a little silly. Overall good game but it's a bit hard to recommend.
The gameplay can get repetitive sometimes, but this game is so awesome, and visually spectacular for the PSP. I love Zack as a protagonist and despite knowing how it would end, I cried A LOT.
Embrace your dreams.
Embrace your dreams.
GACKT: I want my character to be this dramatic guy who's such a tortured soul he's can't directly express himself, so instead he's always quoting Shakespeare.
KAZUSHIGE NOJIMA: Well Shakespeare doesn't exist in our setting, but we do have this play we could expand for him to reference all the time.
GACKT: It's going to be really deep and artistic and cool, right?
KAZUSHIGE NOJIMA: Oh yeah for sure.
KAZUSHIGE NOJIMA: Well Shakespeare doesn't exist in our setting, but we do have this play we could expand for him to reference all the time.
GACKT: It's going to be really deep and artistic and cool, right?
KAZUSHIGE NOJIMA: Oh yeah for sure.
chorei pra caralho jogando isso
Great game with awesome characters and a moving story. Had some weird moments in the story, lacked depth gameplay-wise and felt technically limited by the the PSP. I'll give it a another playthrough with the remake soon.
I love what this game does to Zack, honestly he's my favorite character in FF7 after his characterization in this game, and this is 100% worth playing and ties in well with the original game.
Every scene that involves building on the story from the original is great, and the emotional scenes really get to me, especially the ending.
...But man oh man, EVERYTHING that was made up for this game with the copies and Genesis the pretentious poet just feels soooo terrible, it's just this overwritten shlock with a wannabe Sephiroth, and it just sucks because you already know how it ends, it didn't exist in the first game so it all has to go poof and not matter by the end, and it doesn't, Angeal at least provides the basis for Zack's growth, but everything with Genesis is pure fluff filler.
The combat is just okay, I've heard it's way better in the remaster, so unless you hate his new voice actor, like me, I'd give that a whirl instead, it fixes up the problem like the attack system being a bit too slow and clunky, and the fact that hitting attack makes you run straight to the locked on enemy, whoever the fuck that may be and just swings, and running to attack is instead a dash to attack.
The DMW is completely fucking insane, just a constant roulette wheel spinning that will stop your gameplay for 10s if it's close to getting something good so it can play a limit break, it's totally luck based so you might get like 6 in a row or nothing for 5 minutes, this system is honestly terrible but at least it's patched up in the remaster to not lock you in place as much, and I can't say I'll be missing the game locking up to show me a roulette wheel and pictures from the cutscenes in the game.
Progression is also atrocious, you can ONLY level up from rolling the same numbers in the DMW, not from killing mobs, and the levelling is glacial anyhow, so if you fall behind you're just going to be getting level checked by attacks that deal more damage than you have health, it's really obnoxious, but again, the remaster fixes this.
100% worth the play for FF7 fans, more so than any of the remakes, and 110% if you want to play the remakes, but I'd recommend the remaster simply because of how much better it plays, even if Zacks' voice acting is awful.
Every scene that involves building on the story from the original is great, and the emotional scenes really get to me, especially the ending.
...But man oh man, EVERYTHING that was made up for this game with the copies and Genesis the pretentious poet just feels soooo terrible, it's just this overwritten shlock with a wannabe Sephiroth, and it just sucks because you already know how it ends, it didn't exist in the first game so it all has to go poof and not matter by the end, and it doesn't, Angeal at least provides the basis for Zack's growth, but everything with Genesis is pure fluff filler.
The combat is just okay, I've heard it's way better in the remaster, so unless you hate his new voice actor, like me, I'd give that a whirl instead, it fixes up the problem like the attack system being a bit too slow and clunky, and the fact that hitting attack makes you run straight to the locked on enemy, whoever the fuck that may be and just swings, and running to attack is instead a dash to attack.
The DMW is completely fucking insane, just a constant roulette wheel spinning that will stop your gameplay for 10s if it's close to getting something good so it can play a limit break, it's totally luck based so you might get like 6 in a row or nothing for 5 minutes, this system is honestly terrible but at least it's patched up in the remaster to not lock you in place as much, and I can't say I'll be missing the game locking up to show me a roulette wheel and pictures from the cutscenes in the game.
Progression is also atrocious, you can ONLY level up from rolling the same numbers in the DMW, not from killing mobs, and the levelling is glacial anyhow, so if you fall behind you're just going to be getting level checked by attacks that deal more damage than you have health, it's really obnoxious, but again, the remaster fixes this.
100% worth the play for FF7 fans, more so than any of the remakes, and 110% if you want to play the remakes, but I'd recommend the remaster simply because of how much better it plays, even if Zacks' voice acting is awful.
Lo único bueno que salió de manolo 7
boy oh boy
Playing this immediately after Reunion was really fun, the old VA for Zack was so charming I really wish they kept him for remake, but besides that? I can see how almost every line became a classic