FFVII: Crisis Core

[SiliconX]

I've got quite a few hours invested in the game now. It has its pros, and its cons:

Pros:

1. Story is fantastic. Really fills in some gaps and pacing is great
2. Atmosphere is awesome. Really feels like you're back in the FFVII universe
3. Voice acting is awesome. I've always prefered Japanese language with English subtitles but in this, I think even if it was available, i'd still choose the English language option. Sephiroth, Aerith and Genesis in particular are great
4. Materia system is great. Altered a bit from FFVII's Materia system, but more robust
5. Graphics are top-notch
6. Cinematics are incredible. Better than FFXII's in my opinion

Cons:

1. Combat is pretty blah. 90%+ of the time, you just mash X. Magic (aside from Cure) is largely useless, except for certain creatures which are heavily resistant to physical damage
2. The DMW system is stupid. No real control over your leveling or limits. Really annoying when you hit Cissnei's Lucky Stars limit and it shoots your DMW Limit meter to Sky High or Heavenly. You can expect then to spend the next bunch of battles watching limit after limit after limit
3. Mission system is ok, but the missions themselves are insanely boring. Basically the same 5-6 maps, over and over and over again
4. Spending time doing missions during the course of the game, Zack will level up fairly regularily. Which makes the actual story part of the game stupidly easy. Like 1 shotting enemies and 3-4 shotting bosses easy
5. The only "armor" you get is Accessories. Which is fine, except that as you progress further into the game, you're pretty much REQUIRED to have 2-3 of those slots filled with items that make you Immune to Death, Stun and Stop
6. There's really no point to using any kind of Materia other than HP Plus, AP Plus, ATK Plus, etc. And Cure/Cura/Curaga
7. Enemies are stupid. 95%+ of them, you just get behind them and then keep mashing X. They don't try to escape or anything, just sit there and take the critical hits (a hit will momentarily stun them)
8. Terrible camera. Which makes certain minigames and events nigh impossible (sneaking into Modeoheim's Mako Reactor facility for example)

All in all, a very good game with a really awesome story and voice acting, and there is a ton of stuff to do. Game is just a little too easy. But if you're a fan of Final Fantasy VII, you have to play this game.

[Anubis]

^ very helpful thanks for taking the time to write that.

[olieebur]

well put review. agree'd on most of it there.