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No serious discussion of role-playing video games can possibly exist without any mention of the Final Fantasy series. Virtually no other game series has perpetuated so many consoles and lived such a long life. In its many manifestations, the Final Fantasy series is recognised as fantasy role-playing at its best (table-top classics such as Dungeons & Dragons notwithstanding, of course).

In any case, the Final Fantasy series is everywhere. The most popular instalment of the series, Final Fantasy VII, has even churned out a mini-series of its own. Known as the Compilation of Final Fantasy VII, the mini-series tells the complete story of the characters in the original Final Fantasy VII. This mini-series spans over many different consoles, and Crisis Core is its representation for the Playstation Portable console.

Crisis Core is in my opinion one of the best PSP games I have ever played. For starters, it is the only PSP game I have ever played to completion. In terms of gameplay, it is highly interactive with numerous mini-games and side quests to freshen you up whenever you need some relief from the central plot. The missions, accessible from any Save Point, are an excellent source of items and materia (which are basically orbs that enable your character to use certain skills) that help to make questing much easier. In fact, the missions sometimes provide valuable items that can save you from otherwise highly damaging attacks (hint).

Especially notable in Crisis Core is the rehaul of the combat system. Combat occurs in real-time, unlike in most FF games; the interface during battle is, in fact, especially convenient for real-time battles. The L and R buttons are used to browse between the possible materia and attacks you can use (which are shown as a row of orbs in the bottom-right corner of the screen). This allows quick selection of actions so you can respond immediately to what occurs on the battle-screen. The only issue with the system is the auto-locking target system which makes it difficult to control which enemy to attack. This especially causes problems in boss battles when you are trying to focus on the boss but the system automatically focuses your attack on a minion instead. Still, avoiding this issue is possible and overall, the auto-locking target system proves to be a rather minor problem.

The most major renovation in the battle system is the introduction of the Digital Mind Wave reel, or the DMW. The DMW is a reel that appears in the top-left corner of the battle screen and which churns out random combinations of pictures that you acquire as you progress through the game. The DMW provides certain benefits depending on how the numbers match up; sometimes there is no MP cost for using materia, sometimes you are invincible and cannot be damaged, and sometimes, two images match up at the side and the DMW pops up and fills the entire screen. At this point, if all three reels match, Zack (the character you play) will be able to perform a special attack, depending on what image shows up on all three reels. Occasionally, the reel changes and you get a chance of using a summon. It feels like a pity that you can’t use special attacks at will sometimes, but generally, the DMW makes combat feel a lot more exciting and can even save your life when things seem to be taking a turn for the worse.

In terms of the storyline, Crisis Core thankfully takes on the depth and complexity of most Final Fantasy plots. For those who have played FFVII before, Crisis Core provides a very powerful backstory (and tells you all about a character who barely appears in FFVII and makes a cameo appearance at the end of the Advent Children). For those who have not, the plot is intriguing and intricate enough to stand on its own. Of course, once you’ve finished the game, you can’t help but be fascinated at how the plot continues in the rest of the Compilation of FFVII series. In a way, Crisis Core then also functions as an excellent way to introduce yourself to the series, and to the Final Fantasy meta-series in general. In fact, with the way Crisis Core ends, you can’t help but stop thinking about the story, and finding out more about Final Fantasy VII (if you haven’t already played it) is an irresistible next step. But that, of course, is another story altogether so I shall not spoil it any further.

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(2 votes, average: 4.5 out of 5)
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