Crisis Core: Final
Fantasy VII
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Game
Reviewed: Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII
Publisher: Square
Enix
Reviewer: Matthew
Scott
Platform: PSP
Category: Action RPG
ERSB Rating: T
Game
Summary:
Back in
1997 Final Fantasy VII was released for the PS1 and
quickly became not only one of the most popular RPG games of all time,
but to
many gamers it became one of the most popular games of all time. Now a decade later, fans
of the series can
play the game that tells the story leading up to the events in Final
Fantasy
VII (but only if you have a PSP.)
Crisis
Core starts off seven years before the events of
Final Fantasy VII. In
the game you play
as a young man named Zack who is a part of an elite group of soldiers
aptly
named Soldier. If
you have played Final
Fantasy VII then you probably remember Zack appearing in some flashback
scenes from
that game. If you
have not played Final
Fantasy VII, since Crisis Core is a prequel, it can still be enjoyed by
newcomers.
The
story begins with Zack and another Soldier Operative
named Angeal investigating the disappearance of a 1st
class Soldier
named Genesis. I do
not want to give
away too much of the story from this point on, but it basically has to
do with
learning why Genesis defected from Soldier and stopping his plans to
exact
vengeance upon the world. In
the process
Zack will encounter other characters from the original Final Fantasy
VII such
as Aerith, Cloud, Tifa and Sephiroth allowing the player to get more
back-story
on the events that take place in Final Fantasy VII.
I
will say more in the conclusion of this review, but on a
personal level I really enjoyed Crisis Core.
I would even go as far to say that I think it is one of
the best games
the PSP currently has to offer. There
is
some content, however, that parents will want to be aware of when
deciding if
this game is right for their family or not.
So now let us take a look at content:
Violence:
The
combat is a third person action style of combat.
The only weapon Zack uses is his sword
(except for one mission where he must use a sniper rifle to destroy
some
robots.) The battle plays out in a very similar fashion to the game
Kingdom
Hearts. Enemies
will come at Zack who can
use his sword or spells such as lightning bolts or fireballs to fight
said
enemies which include a variety of monsters, robots and some soldiers. When an enemy is defeated
they simply
disappear. There is
no blood or gore in
the game, but there is one cut-scene towards the end of the game that
has some
blood (nothing graphic.)
Language:
The
word “damn” is used a handful of times and the word “hell”
is used a few times.
Sexual
Content:
There
is a scene on the beach where a girl is in a
bikini. There is
also a scene with a
young girl who is wearing a very short skirt and a mid-riff.
Spiritual
Content:
Zack
can use stones called materia that allow him to cast
spells such as fire, lightning, blizzard and cure.
Zack can also use materia to summon giant
monsters to fight for him. There
is also
reference to materia that it binds it’s user to the planet to use magic
at
will.
Also,
the antagonist of the story, Genesis, often quotes
from a play called “Loveless.” Many
of
these quotes make reference to a goddess, the gift of the goddess and
the
return of the goddess.
Conclusion:
Again,
I want to say that I found Crisis Core to be a very
enjoyable experience on the PSP. Parents
may want to keep Crisis Core out of the hands of young children because
of the
minor violence and minor language. Teens
and adults, however, who enjoy fantasy games (especially if you are a
fan of
FFVII) will definitely want to check Crisis Core out.
