Crisis Core -Final Fantasy VII- is a prequel to Final Fantasy VII for the PlayStation Portable that was released a decade after the original game. Unlike Final Fantasy VII, Crisis Core puts the player in control of Zack Fair, who must fight against hordes of monsters on his own, as the game was an action RPG in the vein of Kingdom Hearts.
Zack only had a small role in the backstory of Final Fantasy VII and the player doesn’t get to learn much about him, especially until a second playthrough. Crisis Core is now over a decade old and as the release of Final Fantasy VII Remake draws closer, it’s time to examine whether it works as a prequel to Final Fantasy VII.
The Other Side Of Shinra
Crisis Core puts the player in the role of Zack Fair, who works for the Shinra Electric Power Company as a member of the SOLDIER military outfit. The Shinra organization are the antagonists throughout most of Final Fantasy VII and Crisis Core offers a fascinating glimpse into the inner-workings of the corporation. Zack performs missions for the Shinra higher-ups, which drags him into the orbit of Sephiroth and his eventual rampage in Nibelheim. The player is given a glimpse into the former iteration of SOLDIER and its Jenova-enhanced members before they all defect or are killed.
The Gameplay
The biggest issue that Crisis Core has in comparison to Final Fantasy VII is its gameplay. The player only controls Zack throughout the game and he only has a limited number of commands he can perform in battle. There is much less Materia variety in Crisis Core and even the summon monsters are tied to random chance. The combat often boils down to hitting the regular attack button and trying to dodge in tiny combat arenas that barely have room to move, yet somehow are poorly tracked by the camera.
The actual story and main missions of Crisis Core are pretty short in length. The bulk of the game consists of smaller missions that reuse the same maps and mobs over and over again and it quickly grows boring repeating the same stages.
Outside of physical and magical attacks, Zack also has access to the DMV (Digital Mind Wave), which is a slot machine that is always running in battle. If the reels line up, then it’s possible for Zack to gain random benefits or perform a powerful attack, like a Limit Break or a summon. These abilities suffer from the same issues as the summon monster scenes in Final Fantasy VII, as the break up the flow of the gameplay and force the player to rewatch the same moments over and over again. It can be thrilling to get a well-timed draw in the middle of battle, but the DMV is too often a distraction to the player.
As a PlayStation Portable title, Crisis Core was made to be played in short bursts and it works better in this manner, but the people expecting an experience similar to Final Fantasy VII will be disappointed by the short-form gameplay.
The Aesthetics & Soundtrack
Final Fantasy VII has one of the greatest soundtracks in video game history. The Crisis Core soundtrack contains numerous remixes of those iconic songs, so it manages to have an awesome soundtrack almost by default.
The visuals in Crisis Core have certainly aged a lot better than Final Fantasy VII. Crisis Core is one of the most impressive looking PlayStation Portable games and it’s still pleasant to look at today, certainly more so than the blocky inconsistent visuals of Final Fantasy VII.
The Genesis Problem
The biggest problem with Crisis Core is the character of Genesis Rhapsodos. If there was ever a poster child for the Marty Stu character type (the male version of the Mary Sue), it would be this pretentious pretty boy. Every scene with Genesis is pure agony, as he quotes his fictional book and preens about his destiny and the goddess and LOVELESS.
One of the most frustrating aspects of Crisis Core is how it inserts Genesis into important moments from the original story, most notably the visit to Nibelheim. Genesis has a part to play in Sephiroth’s downfall, even though he is never mentioned by anyone in the first game.
There are many reasons to hate Genesis, but the biggest is how he screws up the lore of the setting. The spiritual aspect of the world of Final Fantasy VII is one of reincarnation and all life being recycled in an endless cycle of death and birth. Crisis Core throws this out of the window and establishes that there is a divine consciousness known as Minerva within the Lifestream and it intervenes in order to save Genesis’ life and return him to the world. Minerva never intervened to save Aerith or any of the Cetra or Zack, but Nomura’s pretty boy was given a big dose of Deus Ex Machina.
There is currently no evidence that Genesis will be returning in Final Fantasy VII Remake and we can all be thankful for that.
The Ending Saves The Day
The saving grace of Crisis Core is the character of Zack and the ending of the story. Zack is an incredibly likable character and he stands in stark contrast to Cloud. Props should be given to Rick Gomez, who provides the voice of Zack in Crisis Core and other Final Fantasy games, as he brings a real infectious energy to the role, while other actors might have made him unlikeable by overdoing it.
The most memorable scene in Crisis Core is easily the ending. The people who played Final Fantasy VII knew that Zack was done for in Crisis Core, as his demise at the hands of the Shinra troops is shown in the game. Zack’s last stand against the Shinra army as his memories slowly fade away, leaving only memories of Aerith behind, is one of the most tear-jerking moments in the history of gaming. There are so many video games that screw up their ending and leave a sour feeling with the player who spent hours playing them (Mass Effect 3), but Zack’s last words to Cloud and seeing the intro of Final Fantasy VII is an incredible way to end the game. Advent Children had also established that Zack would one day be reunited with Aerith in the Lifestream, so they at least got their happy ending in the future.
Crisis Core is very much a product of the PlayStation Portable era, where the system was huge in Japan and bite-sized gaming experiences (like Monster Hunter) were huge money-spinners. The story of Zack is worth experiencing on its own, just so long as the player isn’t expecting the same epic scope and intricate gameplay of Final Fantasy VII going in.