Box Art
Game: Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII
First Released: September 13, 2007, PSP
Developers: Square Enix
Platforms: PSP
Rated: T, for Blood, Mild Language, Suggestive Themes, and Violence
First Released: September 13, 2007, PSP
Developers: Square Enix
Platforms: PSP
Rated: T, for Blood, Mild Language, Suggestive Themes, and Violence
How I Came To Play This Game
DMW Slot Machine
While I was playing Final Fantasy VII, I decided that I was going to play the whole trilogy. I had a PSP that I bought a few months before, so I could do it. I went out and bought Dirge of Cerberus: Final Fantasy VII, Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII, and the movie Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children. After I finished the original game, I watched the movie. I decided to play the prequel first, so I started Crisis Core.
Story
First Fight
Roughly thirty years before the start of Final Fantasy VII, Sephiroth,
Angeal, and Genesis are born from the Jenova Project. Angeal and Genesis grow up
as childhood friends in the town of Banora. When they come of age, they join
SOLDIER to become heroes like Sephiroth with whom they would eventually become
close friends. Angeal becomes seen as the heart of SOLDIER and acts as the
mentor of those who join.
During a training exercise between the trio, things escalate as Genesis
challenges Sephiroth on his own until Angeal intervenes. Genesis sustains a
wound in his shoulder and later receives a blood transfusion from Angeal,
overseen by a former Shinra scientist named Dr. Hollander, the man behind the
creation of Project G ("Project Gillian" for Angeal's mother). Now suffering
from degradation, Genesis joins forces with Hollander, who claims to be able to
cure him, but is secretly using him to get personal revenge against Shinra.
Genesis goes rogue and causes a "mass desertion" at SOLDIER, causing many of its
warriors to disappear.
One month later at the start of the game, Zack is a SOLDIER 2nd Class under
Angeal's mentorship. After a training simulation, Zack and Angeal are sent to
Fort Tamblin to fight in the final battle of the Wutai War. They learn that
Angeal's childhood friend, Genesis, has betrayed Shinra. After Angeal disappears
as well, they find several soldiers working under Genesis who look exactly like
Genesis, transformed into copies of him thanks to stolen Shinra technology.
Sephiroth informs Zack that Angeal has deserted SOLDIER and turned traitor.
Zack refuses to believe his friend and mentor would be a turncoat. He is sent
to Banora village along with the Turk Tseng to investigate Genesis's
disappearance. They find several graves, including those of Genesis's parents.
The only person Zack can find is Gillian Hewley. At the town factory, Zack meets
Genesis and Angeal appears, but when Zack returns to Gillian later, he finds her
dead with Angeal standing over her. Shocked by the idea that Angeal may have
killed his own mother, Zack becomes enraged. Genesis appears and summons Bahamut
to fight Zack. After Zack defeats it, Genesis calls himself a monster, sprouts a
single black wing and flies away. The town is bombed by the Shinra Army
aircraft.
Back at Shinra Headquarters, Zack is promoted to SOLDIER 1st Class by Lazard.
Genesis and his army launch an assault upon the Headquarters and Zack fights his
way through rescuing the Turk, Cissnei, on his way to Sector 5 Reactor where
Sephiroth says Angeal has been spotted. The two find monsters that have Angeal's
face on their bodies, similar to the Genesis Copies that make up Genesis's army.
They find documents about Jenova Project G, the branch of the Jenova Project
that created both Genesis and Angeal, but was deemed a failure. Sephiroth tells
how Genesis is suffering from degradation, slowly dying because of his tainted
birth.
Zack tries to capture Hollander in the Mako Reactor, but Angeal arrives and
shows Zack his white wings, and says he has become a monster. Zack tries to
convince his former mentor his wings do not belong to a monster but an angel,
and Angeal says angels dream to be human. Despite Angeal attacking him, Zack
refuses to fight his old friend, causing Angeal to drop Zack down into the
Midgar slums.
Falling into the Sector 5 Church, Zack lands into the flower bed tended to by
Aerith Gainsborough. Zack and Aerith go on a date in the Slums, which begins a
relationship that lasts until Zack is lost during his mission to Nibelheim. Zack
has to return to the top of the plate because of another Genesis attack. Angeal
decides to take a clear side and helps Zack beat the Genesis Army out of
Midgar.
Zack is sent to the abandoned town of Modeoheim in the frigid wastes of the
Northern Continent. He goes along with Tseng, and a Shinra infantryman named
Cloud Strife. Since both Zack and Cloud are "country boys," the two quickly
become friends. At Modeoheim, Zack and the team find an abandoned Mako
warehouse, which Genesis has been using as a base. Zack storms the facility and
rescues Hollander from a vengeful Genesis, angry at Hollander's failure to stop
the degradation. A weakened Genesis tries to fight Zack, but is defeated.
Genesis falls into the abyss below and is assumed dead. Hollander flees into the
town of Modeoheim while Zack pursues.
At a ruined bathhouse, Zack finds Angeal. Hollander tells how Angeal was the
true success of Project G, having Jenova's power of a two-way genetic conduit.
He is able to pass off his genes, and take in those of other organisms. Angeal,
no longer wishing to be a monster, absorbs several different copies and turns
into a hideous creature, Angeal Penance. Zack defeats it and mortally wounds
Angeal. Just before he dies, Angeal passes on his Buster Sword and the legacy of
SOLDIER honor to Zack. Dr. Hollander is captured and with all three major
threats to Shinra gone, the war seems to be over.
Zack takes over Angeal's role as the heart and soul of SOLDIER, speaking to
trainees and encouraging recruits. After all that he has been through, Shinra
sends him to Costa del Sol, reportedly for a vacation. As Zack relaxes on the
beach, several Genesis Copies come out of the water to attack, showing that
Genesis and his army are still alive. Zack defeats them with a parasol and is
sent to Junon, where Genesis has launched a full-scale attack. Junon is where
Dr. Hollander was sent after being taken in Modeoheim. Genesis and his army
cause enough chaos for Hollander to slip out. Their attack was successful
largely due to the intelligence given by the surprise traitor, Director
Lazard.
Sephiroth briefly takes over the SOLDIER operations. Noticing that Genesis
seems to be attacking Mako Reactors around the Planet, he plans an operation in
Nibelheim, Cloud's hometown. Zack visits Midgar and Aerith one last time before
going off. Sephiroth, Zack, Cloud, and another Shinra guard arrive in Nibelheim
and are led to the Nibelheim Reactor on Mt. Nibel by a guide, Tifa Lockhart. At
the reactor they find monsters created by over-exposure to Mako. Sephiroth finds
a tank labeled "JENOVA" - the name of his "mother" - within is the vaguely
feminine form of an alien creature. Genesis appears and tells Sephiroth that he
was born out of Jenova Project S. With his past in doubt and Genesis's words in
question, Sephiroth goes down into the Shinra Manor basement, reading Professor
Gast Faremis's files on Project S of the Jenova Project.
Driven to insanity by the knowledge of his birth, Sephiroth goes on a rampage
and destroys Nibelheim, killing most of the population. Zack chases after the
SOLDIER hero up to the reactor. Sephiroth tries to free his "mother" from the
tank, cutting Tifa down along the way. Zack confronts Sephiroth and fights him
but Sephiroth defeats him. Cloud arrives, furious over his mother's death and
Tifa's grave injuries. Using an unknown power, Cloud defeats Sephiroth, sending
him into the Lifestream along with Jenova's head he was holding onto. Though
Cloud wins, he is badly wounded, and falls.
Professor Hojo, the mastermind of Project S, takes Zack's and Cloud's beaten
bodies and starts a new experiment, this one to create Sephiroth Clones to test
his Reunion Theory. Zack and Cloud are infused with Sephiroth's cells and lie
asleep in tanks for four years until Zack is awoken by what seems to be Angeal.
Since Zack is a SOLDIER, and resistant to Mako because of the SOLDIER process,
he has enough strength to drag himself and a comatose Cloud out of a rebuilt
Nibelheim through the ranks of Shinra soldiers.
As Zack and Cloud make their way across the world, they run into Genesis and
his copies. Since Zack and Cloud are infused with S Cells, Genesis wishes to
take the two to stop his degradation. A Genesis Copy tests Genesis's plan by
eating a lock of Zack's hair but this turns the Copy into a monster, which Zack
defeats. Zack travels to his hometown of Gongaga to see his parents, but Cissnei
appears to warn Zack, telling him that going to Gongaga is too obvious; Shinra
and others will expect this move. Genesis and Hollander, now a Genesis Copy,
attack. Zack chases after Hollander who decides to stand and fight, but Zack
defeats him. The person who Zack thought was Angeal that protects him and Cloud
is actually Director Lazard, now an Angeal Copy dying of the same degradation
that Genesis and his Copies are suffering from.
Zack defeating Genesis.
Zack puts together where Genesis has been hiding for so long. Genesis is
always seen carrying a Banora White apple, and thus must have been hiding in
Banora. Zack makes his way into an underground cavern beneath the cratered land
that used to be Banora Village. He finds Genesis hiding at the end of the cave
with a statue of "the Goddess" holding the Goddess Materia. He claims LOVELESS
to now be fulfilled as the three friends are "reunited", with Zack inheriting
Angeal's will and Sephiroth's cells. Genesis absorbs the Materia's power,
transforms into Genesis Avatar, and engages Zack before returning to his human
form.
Now healed of his degradation, Genesis fights Zack but is defeated. Genesis
finds himself in a place filled with Lifestream and sees the statue turn into
the Goddess. As he approaches her, the Goddess sees his desire to complete his
duty as SOLDIER, and acting as the will of the Lifestream, prevents him from
returning to the Planet so he may one day complete his goal. Afterward, Zack
drags Genesis's limp body up to his campsite to join a comatose Cloud and a
dying Lazard in a bizarre picnic of half-dead bodies. Lazard had just fought
Shinra soldiers, with the help of a canine Angeal Copy, which Zack recognizes as
the same one that defended Aerith at the church earlier. Both are dying, from
their wounds and degradation.
Zack gathers everyone with some Banora Whites and fulfills Genesis's
childhood dream of sharing the apple with Sephiroth. Through his fight with
Zack, Genesis realizes the true Gift of the Goddess: SOLDIER honor. As Lazard
and the Angeal Copy die and fade away, its body is replaced with a letter, one
of eighty-nine that Aerith sent during the intervening four years, and the last
she sent before giving up on receiving a reply. Upon reading the letter, Zack is
shocked to find he has been gone for four years. Desperate to show her he is
still alive, Zack makes his way to Midgar to rejoin Aerith. Later, Nero and
Weiss, the future leaders of Deepground, arrive dressed as 1st Class SOLDIERs,
and take the unconscious Genesis away. Genesis's voice can be heard a final
time, creating his own final act of LOVELESS.
Back in Midgar, Tseng mobilizes the Turks to find Zack and Cloud before the
Shinra army does. Before Zack can reach Midgar, the Shinra army tracks him down
and appears in force to stop him. Zack makes a stand against them and fights
with everything he has to join his love back in the city. The numbers are too
much for him, and Zack is mortally wounded. Looking up into the raining sky,
Zack feels his life fading away, as does Aerith, while tending to her garden a
few short miles away in the Midgar Slums. A confused Cloud awakes, and sees his
friend dying on the ground. Zack tells Cloud he will be proof that he lived, and
therefore be his "living legacy." Just as Angeal before him, Zack passes down
the Buster Sword and his SOLDIER honor to Cloud.
This, along with the torture he experienced at Hojo's hands, shatters Cloud's
mind, and causes him to merge Zack's personality and memories with his own to
create a new personality and history a short time later. The real Angeal
descends from the sky as an angel to bring Zack into the Lifestream. Cloud
wanders into Midgar, dragging the Buster Sword on the ground as he goes. Zack's
lingering voice tells Cloud to say hi to Aerith for him if he sees her, and
asking if he has finally become a hero.
Cloud rides the train towards the attack on Sector 1 Reactor, wearing a
modification of the SOLDIER 1st Class uniform. He declares himself a SOLDIER 1st
Class. Text on a black screen tells the player the story continues in the
original Final Fantasy VII.
Angeal, and Genesis are born from the Jenova Project. Angeal and Genesis grow up
as childhood friends in the town of Banora. When they come of age, they join
SOLDIER to become heroes like Sephiroth with whom they would eventually become
close friends. Angeal becomes seen as the heart of SOLDIER and acts as the
mentor of those who join.
During a training exercise between the trio, things escalate as Genesis
challenges Sephiroth on his own until Angeal intervenes. Genesis sustains a
wound in his shoulder and later receives a blood transfusion from Angeal,
overseen by a former Shinra scientist named Dr. Hollander, the man behind the
creation of Project G ("Project Gillian" for Angeal's mother). Now suffering
from degradation, Genesis joins forces with Hollander, who claims to be able to
cure him, but is secretly using him to get personal revenge against Shinra.
Genesis goes rogue and causes a "mass desertion" at SOLDIER, causing many of its
warriors to disappear.
One month later at the start of the game, Zack is a SOLDIER 2nd Class under
Angeal's mentorship. After a training simulation, Zack and Angeal are sent to
Fort Tamblin to fight in the final battle of the Wutai War. They learn that
Angeal's childhood friend, Genesis, has betrayed Shinra. After Angeal disappears
as well, they find several soldiers working under Genesis who look exactly like
Genesis, transformed into copies of him thanks to stolen Shinra technology.
Sephiroth informs Zack that Angeal has deserted SOLDIER and turned traitor.
Zack refuses to believe his friend and mentor would be a turncoat. He is sent
to Banora village along with the Turk Tseng to investigate Genesis's
disappearance. They find several graves, including those of Genesis's parents.
The only person Zack can find is Gillian Hewley. At the town factory, Zack meets
Genesis and Angeal appears, but when Zack returns to Gillian later, he finds her
dead with Angeal standing over her. Shocked by the idea that Angeal may have
killed his own mother, Zack becomes enraged. Genesis appears and summons Bahamut
to fight Zack. After Zack defeats it, Genesis calls himself a monster, sprouts a
single black wing and flies away. The town is bombed by the Shinra Army
aircraft.
Back at Shinra Headquarters, Zack is promoted to SOLDIER 1st Class by Lazard.
Genesis and his army launch an assault upon the Headquarters and Zack fights his
way through rescuing the Turk, Cissnei, on his way to Sector 5 Reactor where
Sephiroth says Angeal has been spotted. The two find monsters that have Angeal's
face on their bodies, similar to the Genesis Copies that make up Genesis's army.
They find documents about Jenova Project G, the branch of the Jenova Project
that created both Genesis and Angeal, but was deemed a failure. Sephiroth tells
how Genesis is suffering from degradation, slowly dying because of his tainted
birth.
Zack tries to capture Hollander in the Mako Reactor, but Angeal arrives and
shows Zack his white wings, and says he has become a monster. Zack tries to
convince his former mentor his wings do not belong to a monster but an angel,
and Angeal says angels dream to be human. Despite Angeal attacking him, Zack
refuses to fight his old friend, causing Angeal to drop Zack down into the
Midgar slums.
Falling into the Sector 5 Church, Zack lands into the flower bed tended to by
Aerith Gainsborough. Zack and Aerith go on a date in the Slums, which begins a
relationship that lasts until Zack is lost during his mission to Nibelheim. Zack
has to return to the top of the plate because of another Genesis attack. Angeal
decides to take a clear side and helps Zack beat the Genesis Army out of
Midgar.
Zack is sent to the abandoned town of Modeoheim in the frigid wastes of the
Northern Continent. He goes along with Tseng, and a Shinra infantryman named
Cloud Strife. Since both Zack and Cloud are "country boys," the two quickly
become friends. At Modeoheim, Zack and the team find an abandoned Mako
warehouse, which Genesis has been using as a base. Zack storms the facility and
rescues Hollander from a vengeful Genesis, angry at Hollander's failure to stop
the degradation. A weakened Genesis tries to fight Zack, but is defeated.
Genesis falls into the abyss below and is assumed dead. Hollander flees into the
town of Modeoheim while Zack pursues.
At a ruined bathhouse, Zack finds Angeal. Hollander tells how Angeal was the
true success of Project G, having Jenova's power of a two-way genetic conduit.
He is able to pass off his genes, and take in those of other organisms. Angeal,
no longer wishing to be a monster, absorbs several different copies and turns
into a hideous creature, Angeal Penance. Zack defeats it and mortally wounds
Angeal. Just before he dies, Angeal passes on his Buster Sword and the legacy of
SOLDIER honor to Zack. Dr. Hollander is captured and with all three major
threats to Shinra gone, the war seems to be over.
Zack takes over Angeal's role as the heart and soul of SOLDIER, speaking to
trainees and encouraging recruits. After all that he has been through, Shinra
sends him to Costa del Sol, reportedly for a vacation. As Zack relaxes on the
beach, several Genesis Copies come out of the water to attack, showing that
Genesis and his army are still alive. Zack defeats them with a parasol and is
sent to Junon, where Genesis has launched a full-scale attack. Junon is where
Dr. Hollander was sent after being taken in Modeoheim. Genesis and his army
cause enough chaos for Hollander to slip out. Their attack was successful
largely due to the intelligence given by the surprise traitor, Director
Lazard.
Sephiroth briefly takes over the SOLDIER operations. Noticing that Genesis
seems to be attacking Mako Reactors around the Planet, he plans an operation in
Nibelheim, Cloud's hometown. Zack visits Midgar and Aerith one last time before
going off. Sephiroth, Zack, Cloud, and another Shinra guard arrive in Nibelheim
and are led to the Nibelheim Reactor on Mt. Nibel by a guide, Tifa Lockhart. At
the reactor they find monsters created by over-exposure to Mako. Sephiroth finds
a tank labeled "JENOVA" - the name of his "mother" - within is the vaguely
feminine form of an alien creature. Genesis appears and tells Sephiroth that he
was born out of Jenova Project S. With his past in doubt and Genesis's words in
question, Sephiroth goes down into the Shinra Manor basement, reading Professor
Gast Faremis's files on Project S of the Jenova Project.
Driven to insanity by the knowledge of his birth, Sephiroth goes on a rampage
and destroys Nibelheim, killing most of the population. Zack chases after the
SOLDIER hero up to the reactor. Sephiroth tries to free his "mother" from the
tank, cutting Tifa down along the way. Zack confronts Sephiroth and fights him
but Sephiroth defeats him. Cloud arrives, furious over his mother's death and
Tifa's grave injuries. Using an unknown power, Cloud defeats Sephiroth, sending
him into the Lifestream along with Jenova's head he was holding onto. Though
Cloud wins, he is badly wounded, and falls.
Professor Hojo, the mastermind of Project S, takes Zack's and Cloud's beaten
bodies and starts a new experiment, this one to create Sephiroth Clones to test
his Reunion Theory. Zack and Cloud are infused with Sephiroth's cells and lie
asleep in tanks for four years until Zack is awoken by what seems to be Angeal.
Since Zack is a SOLDIER, and resistant to Mako because of the SOLDIER process,
he has enough strength to drag himself and a comatose Cloud out of a rebuilt
Nibelheim through the ranks of Shinra soldiers.
As Zack and Cloud make their way across the world, they run into Genesis and
his copies. Since Zack and Cloud are infused with S Cells, Genesis wishes to
take the two to stop his degradation. A Genesis Copy tests Genesis's plan by
eating a lock of Zack's hair but this turns the Copy into a monster, which Zack
defeats. Zack travels to his hometown of Gongaga to see his parents, but Cissnei
appears to warn Zack, telling him that going to Gongaga is too obvious; Shinra
and others will expect this move. Genesis and Hollander, now a Genesis Copy,
attack. Zack chases after Hollander who decides to stand and fight, but Zack
defeats him. The person who Zack thought was Angeal that protects him and Cloud
is actually Director Lazard, now an Angeal Copy dying of the same degradation
that Genesis and his Copies are suffering from.
Zack defeating Genesis.
Zack puts together where Genesis has been hiding for so long. Genesis is
always seen carrying a Banora White apple, and thus must have been hiding in
Banora. Zack makes his way into an underground cavern beneath the cratered land
that used to be Banora Village. He finds Genesis hiding at the end of the cave
with a statue of "the Goddess" holding the Goddess Materia. He claims LOVELESS
to now be fulfilled as the three friends are "reunited", with Zack inheriting
Angeal's will and Sephiroth's cells. Genesis absorbs the Materia's power,
transforms into Genesis Avatar, and engages Zack before returning to his human
form.
Now healed of his degradation, Genesis fights Zack but is defeated. Genesis
finds himself in a place filled with Lifestream and sees the statue turn into
the Goddess. As he approaches her, the Goddess sees his desire to complete his
duty as SOLDIER, and acting as the will of the Lifestream, prevents him from
returning to the Planet so he may one day complete his goal. Afterward, Zack
drags Genesis's limp body up to his campsite to join a comatose Cloud and a
dying Lazard in a bizarre picnic of half-dead bodies. Lazard had just fought
Shinra soldiers, with the help of a canine Angeal Copy, which Zack recognizes as
the same one that defended Aerith at the church earlier. Both are dying, from
their wounds and degradation.
Zack gathers everyone with some Banora Whites and fulfills Genesis's
childhood dream of sharing the apple with Sephiroth. Through his fight with
Zack, Genesis realizes the true Gift of the Goddess: SOLDIER honor. As Lazard
and the Angeal Copy die and fade away, its body is replaced with a letter, one
of eighty-nine that Aerith sent during the intervening four years, and the last
she sent before giving up on receiving a reply. Upon reading the letter, Zack is
shocked to find he has been gone for four years. Desperate to show her he is
still alive, Zack makes his way to Midgar to rejoin Aerith. Later, Nero and
Weiss, the future leaders of Deepground, arrive dressed as 1st Class SOLDIERs,
and take the unconscious Genesis away. Genesis's voice can be heard a final
time, creating his own final act of LOVELESS.
Back in Midgar, Tseng mobilizes the Turks to find Zack and Cloud before the
Shinra army does. Before Zack can reach Midgar, the Shinra army tracks him down
and appears in force to stop him. Zack makes a stand against them and fights
with everything he has to join his love back in the city. The numbers are too
much for him, and Zack is mortally wounded. Looking up into the raining sky,
Zack feels his life fading away, as does Aerith, while tending to her garden a
few short miles away in the Midgar Slums. A confused Cloud awakes, and sees his
friend dying on the ground. Zack tells Cloud he will be proof that he lived, and
therefore be his "living legacy." Just as Angeal before him, Zack passes down
the Buster Sword and his SOLDIER honor to Cloud.
This, along with the torture he experienced at Hojo's hands, shatters Cloud's
mind, and causes him to merge Zack's personality and memories with his own to
create a new personality and history a short time later. The real Angeal
descends from the sky as an angel to bring Zack into the Lifestream. Cloud
wanders into Midgar, dragging the Buster Sword on the ground as he goes. Zack's
lingering voice tells Cloud to say hi to Aerith for him if he sees her, and
asking if he has finally become a hero.
Cloud rides the train towards the attack on Sector 1 Reactor, wearing a
modification of the SOLDIER 1st Class uniform. He declares himself a SOLDIER 1st
Class. Text on a black screen tells the player the story continues in the
original Final Fantasy VII.
Pros And Cons
Story
Fight With Guard Scorpion
The story calms a lot of confusion that was made in the first one. Many people like me, on their first time playing, had no idea who Zack was or if he really had anything to do with the story. Also, it showed Sephiroth go bad in a more respectable way. I liked it that they were able to show what the real hero Sephiroth was like.
Characters
Main Characters
A lot of characters make their debuts in this game such as Zack, Cloud, Sephiroth, Tseng, Reno, and Rude. However, there are some new characters such as Genesis, Angeal, Cissnei, and Lazard. Yuffie even makes a cameo appearance in the story and has her very own sets of missions for you to do.
Gameplay
Field Near Chocobo Farm
The gameplay is a lot like Final Fantasy, but not quite. The gameplay is also a lot like Kingdom Hearts, but not quite. It is sort of a mixture between the two. Like in Kingdom Hearts, you freely move around the battle field, you can slash as many times as you want, and heal the same way. Like Final Fantasy, you are still making selections for the moves he does. When you choose to attack, Zack will automatically run to the enemy and hit it even if you're not touching the d-pad or slider. Also, the battle scenes happen as random encounters, but are instead located in predetermined places. This means you could skip most battles all together by just staying near the walls. There are some very annoying things however. One complaint I have is that when the enemy inflicts the Stop status problem on you, then does it again, it resets the time you need to wait to be able to move again. Thus, an enemy could completely immobilize you. Another issue I have is that in the later missions, the bosses have way too much HP. I know for a fact there is a secret boss called Minerva at the end of a chapter of missions, but there's no way I could get there. This game is so hard, even if you cheat it's still hard. I've seen YouTube videos of people fighting Minerva with over 10,000 HP. How did they do that? The max HP you can get is 9999. Also, another annoying thing was how the level up and limit break systems worked. Whether or not you level up or get a limit break depends on the outcome of a slot machine called the DMW. The chances it would land on triple 7s, the requirement for a level up, were pretty slim. Also, limit breaks only happened once in a while because three of the same characters had to match up to get one.
Graphics
Notice The Pixels
The graphics are typical for a PSP game. The graphics are done very well for a handheld at the time, but suffer from increased pixilation. Basically from far away, it looks good, but if you bring the screen up to your eyes it looks like a jumble of blocks.
Music
The music was composed of remixed tracks from the original Final Fantasy VII. I liked that they made the Victory Fanfare sound cool, the one from the original was terrible. Also the remixes of the Intro and the Battle music were cool too.
Releases
Box Art
Unlike a lot of other Final Fantasy games, this game is fairly recent and hasn't been released on any other console. It was released in Japan on September 13, 2007 and in North America on March 25, 2008.
My Rating
I rate this game 8/10. The main story and game were fine, but dang were the missions hard! Was it necessary to make it like that? Well, if you feel like spending 20 minutes mashing the X-button to attack, be my guest.