Just to get the superficial shit out of the way; wow, this game looks awful on Switch. The FMVs are untouched, they look great. But holy hell the sacrifices they had to make for this game to have a decent locked framerate is crazy. It's kind of a miracle this version runs on Switch, so props to them, but damn I kind of wish I played on PC if I didn't prefer the portability.
The gameplay itself is actually quite an interesting change up from the standard FF formula, I found it refreshing... for a little bit anyways. I think the materia fusion system and the gearing is actually quite awesome in this game, but still not quite good enough to fix the greatest issue this game has which is repetitiveness. And this game is one of the worst cases I've seen from a AAA release, even if it was on the PSP intially. You will play the same exact maps at least 20 different times if you are doing a good chunk of the optional missions like I did. I ended up being like level 48 at the end of the game because I did so many optional missions, but I didn't even get 50% clear on the optional missions because there's just so damn many. This was a problem, because I absolutely STEAMROLLED the final bosses with little-to-no challenge, and I also endured dozens upon dozens of tedious little side missions, which granted, they take like 5 minutes tops, they're still the same exact thing; walk over here, kill a boss/bosses, a handful of chests/random encounters along the way. It is a fucking slog, which is why I would only recommend doing a few side missions here and there, as some of the questlines are actually quite cute, but man are the just generic missions so exhausting after a while.
The highlight of my time playing Crisis Core was the ACTUAL boss fights. I had an amazing time fighting Bahamut when I was like 5-6 levels under what I should have been, it felt a lot some of the Summon fights from FF7R with Chadley. These fights are the absolute peak of Crisis Core, and unfortunately they were a high I only got a handful of times, due to how quickly I got overpowered. After doing a ton of side missions, which the game told me I should be doing, I was 1-shotting bosses left and right, and I feel like I was a little robbed of what the game should be like. I didn't even break a sweat on the game's final boss. In the game's defense, I didn't really look for a difficulty setting after I realized how OP I was, I kind of just wanted the game to be over.
Crisis Core's story is really fascinating. I didn't know hardly anything going in, except that I was pretty sure about how things were going to end. I found the new characters like Angeal and Genesis to be pretty hit or miss, but what ground was covered with already existing characters and their relation to Zack was super interesting. Overall, it's a pretty just decent story. What absolutely broke me was the ending. I don't know what it was that hit me so hard, but the last time I cried this hard was at the ending of XC3: Future Redeemed, which is like the emotional zenith of my favorite trilogy of games ever, so that makes sense there. But Crisis Core wasn't the most insane story or anything, so I found myself quite caught off guard. I guess the writers just really knew how to hit you where it hurts.
At the end of the day, I think there is a lot of value in Crisis Core's story, even if the pacing is bizarre. I wish I could replay the game with less of the side shit, as I think I'd like the game better, but given what I did experience, I thought this game was a super solid beat em up in world of FF7 that links Cloud and Zack's story in a super heartfelt way. I am very glad I played.
The gameplay itself is actually quite an interesting change up from the standard FF formula, I found it refreshing... for a little bit anyways. I think the materia fusion system and the gearing is actually quite awesome in this game, but still not quite good enough to fix the greatest issue this game has which is repetitiveness. And this game is one of the worst cases I've seen from a AAA release, even if it was on the PSP intially. You will play the same exact maps at least 20 different times if you are doing a good chunk of the optional missions like I did. I ended up being like level 48 at the end of the game because I did so many optional missions, but I didn't even get 50% clear on the optional missions because there's just so damn many. This was a problem, because I absolutely STEAMROLLED the final bosses with little-to-no challenge, and I also endured dozens upon dozens of tedious little side missions, which granted, they take like 5 minutes tops, they're still the same exact thing; walk over here, kill a boss/bosses, a handful of chests/random encounters along the way. It is a fucking slog, which is why I would only recommend doing a few side missions here and there, as some of the questlines are actually quite cute, but man are the just generic missions so exhausting after a while.
The highlight of my time playing Crisis Core was the ACTUAL boss fights. I had an amazing time fighting Bahamut when I was like 5-6 levels under what I should have been, it felt a lot some of the Summon fights from FF7R with Chadley. These fights are the absolute peak of Crisis Core, and unfortunately they were a high I only got a handful of times, due to how quickly I got overpowered. After doing a ton of side missions, which the game told me I should be doing, I was 1-shotting bosses left and right, and I feel like I was a little robbed of what the game should be like. I didn't even break a sweat on the game's final boss. In the game's defense, I didn't really look for a difficulty setting after I realized how OP I was, I kind of just wanted the game to be over.
Crisis Core's story is really fascinating. I didn't know hardly anything going in, except that I was pretty sure about how things were going to end. I found the new characters like Angeal and Genesis to be pretty hit or miss, but what ground was covered with already existing characters and their relation to Zack was super interesting. Overall, it's a pretty just decent story. What absolutely broke me was the ending. I don't know what it was that hit me so hard, but the last time I cried this hard was at the ending of XC3: Future Redeemed, which is like the emotional zenith of my favorite trilogy of games ever, so that makes sense there. But Crisis Core wasn't the most insane story or anything, so I found myself quite caught off guard. I guess the writers just really knew how to hit you where it hurts.
At the end of the day, I think there is a lot of value in Crisis Core's story, even if the pacing is bizarre. I wish I could replay the game with less of the side shit, as I think I'd like the game better, but given what I did experience, I thought this game was a super solid beat em up in world of FF7 that links Cloud and Zack's story in a super heartfelt way. I am very glad I played.