the compilation of final fantasy games are very much tied to their era for me. not in a bad way or anything, i think anyone who tries to tell you a game can "age poorly" or "Be dated" is a charlatan and should not be trusted. they just embody this specific era of Japanese culture in specific ways that when i think of this era and its tech, i just can't help but think of this, advent children and dirge. as Advent Children is the most UMD movie, as Dirge is the most late-ps2 game ever made and as Crisis core is the most PSP a game could and would ever be. from it's structure, it's UI, it's gameplay, aesthetics and even it's font. it's all the PSP at it's most PSP and i adore it. this page will contain spoilers for the original FF7 throughout, be warned if that is a game you plan to play.

one of the cooler things about crisis core is the battle system. it's got this cool mix of turn based and real time that I really like. you swing your sword and cast your spells all in real time but you pick it from a menu on the side. it feels like a slower paced kingdom hearts kind of deal or a less actiony version of the system that would later be used in the 7 remake games. I think it works really well, there's a huge variety of spells to use (I liked blizzaga, barrier, vital hit and curaga as my main loadout) and it gives the game a nice pace to it with a ton of combinations and playstyles you can go for. i stuck with buffs and spells mainly but you can go for physical attacks, offensive magic or go all in on healing and stat boosts. it can be a little hard to get used to the pace at first though, it feels like the action should be more fluid than it is but the delay in the inputs on the little command thingy make it feel slower and stiff but i think that makes the game feel a little more strategic than your average kingdom hearts game or even compared to other action games. it has a very unique kind of game-feel and there's not much like it out there. there is also the other big thing with the combat system that makes it entirely unique. the DMM system. this is a slot machine in the top left of your screen that stops as you get hits. it's a strange thing to put in an action game but it's also the games best aspect I think and the one that makes it stand out as a wholly unique experience. it gives you buffs on the fly like free magic spells, an extra life upon death, extra health and MP and even some special ultimate abilities that do huge amounts of damage if you manage to get three of the same image in a row. it adds a lot of randomness to the fights but it makes them feel more lively than it otherwise would and it's just so weird and neat that I can't help but love it. there isn't much else like having 3 sephiroth's come in to deliver that last blow with omnislash or a triple arith for a full heal when you're about to die. it even has some other things neat about it too like a series of small vignettes you can unlock via this system, showing scenes with zack interacting with the cast that the team couldn't integrate into the story that pop up like cutscenes would in any real pachislot machine, it's neat! in general the game feels very much like a blueprint for what would later be expanded on by the 7 remakes. the levels are small and linier but with some nice hub areas and some minigames scattered about. stuff like getting to do squats, talk to NPCs and join fan clubs, helping aerith build a flower cart and a pretty cool urban legend hunt near the end of the game.

there's also stuff like unlocking emails on your phone which I loved or dozens of missions you can undertake at save points with their own bespoke maps and enemies you can fight, including a really cool optional final boss that I would recommend seeking out of you think you can manage it. these are a lot of fun and they make the game a pretty amazing portable play, it's easy to load it up and get a few missions finished on a commute or a bus ride. they give the game a lot more environmental variety too with some of the biomes you can see there. some can be missable though and the difficulty can really vary in weird ways though, but they're great for grinding and they give the game a lot of variety. some of them even have a little bit of story like the yuffie ones. the game tends to be on the easier side for the most part, you don't level up super often because you need 3 7's to do so (i was only in my mid 30 levels by the time i finished this run) but the game never massively feels like you need to. there are a few segments that are difficult but mainly because of things like minigames or a difficult boss or two that you can still overcome with some luck. the stealth minigame though was the games toughest moment on a first run, it was brutal especially if you want to get everything it offers you. same with some of those missions, the level requirements aren't always signposted well so you can end up stumbling into one you're not even close to being ready for if you aren't careful. it's not the longest game, an average run will take you about 12 hours if you skip all the missions but i feel like for most people it'll be closer to 15. if you want that optional boss and all those missions completed though this could easily take dozens of hours to fully finish. so if you want to you could really sink some time into it.

*spoiler warning for the original FF7* the story is the strongpoint here though. the game focuses super heavy on shinra which was always the most interesting aspect of the 7 world for me and here you get so much lore on them and it's all so interesting. from seeing a different side of the turks with cisnei, all the Fanclub shinanigans, sepheroth before the fall, actual insight into the wutai war and talking to all the cool soldier NPC's and getting friendly emails from BEST BOY KUNSEL and the director of soldier with his propaganda emails. there's a lot said about how prequels are bad since they have no stakes because of how you know how the story turns out but I don't always agree with that. in the case of crisis core I think the game actually comes out better for it. sure for the core cast and the state of the world you know they won't die but any side characters could and there could be consequences beyond what was shown off in those main games. beyond this I think that crisis core takes this knowledge of the inevitable and it works it into the story in a way that just makes it more tragic and sad. sure you know zack will die so it won't come as a shock or a twist, but that knowledge that it'll eventually happen just makes you feel so much more dread for it as you start to care and love zack. you will love him too, he's easily one of the best protagonists in the whole series and it hurts to get to love him because you know that it can only end one way. it's a tragic game full of sadness and dread and I don't think it would be as good at that if you didn't know how it was going to end.

it's a good story too beyond the cute background lore and zack. genesis is a great villain and i love his whole poetry gimmick, he also gets some great scenes here like the three-way fight with him, sephhy and angael and all the stuff at banora. angael is one of the best characters in the game and i love his role as a mentor and i teared up during at least one of his later scenes. all of the returning cast have some of their best interactions here with sephiroth being cool pre-fall, cloud just being a huge adorable dork and aerith having the cutest relationship with zack. if you like this world and this cast then this is one of the best stories told there, though one that can admittedly be a little meandering sometimes with all of the times you find a character only to have them get away in the last second. to me it's worth it for those highlights, especially that ending. it really hits you in a way i don't think any of the other 7 games ever managed to and might just be the saddest ending in any game, i never thought a sword could make you want to cry this much.

the game is so good looking too! you get to see even more areas in full 3D compared to dirge, places like gongaga, nibelheim, junon, a super small section of costa del sol, pre-fall midgar and the shinra building which act like a very cool hub town, a very cool section in wutai and my personal favourite with modeoheim which is the games best looking area. you also get some new locales like Banora and a huge wutai fort, plus some random locations in the side missions like deserts and forests which all look really cool. it has a really linier, flat look to it that a lot of RPG's of the era has but i think it's one of the better looking of those, especially in that snow area. the UI also looks fantastic, stuff like the email system and the various pause menus really remind me of playonline launcher or a cool flip-phone UI. i love how the DMM system looks too with the little low res character portraits and each of your 3 bars having different colours. the character designs are some of the series best too! genesis looks great and gackt fits right in with this style of game perfect. zack looks great in both of his versions in game, though i do prefer the younger zack's design. he was just a lot cuter with short hair. cisnei, lazard and the rest of the turks look amazing and all of the incidental NPC's all look really cool too, they remind me of the third birthday's NPC's a lot. The returning characters like cloud and aerith have some of their best looks here too, especially cloud, i adore his shinra outfit. not every character i love the look of though, both Hollander and angael i feel iffy on the designs of. i don't dislike either though, they're just not especially cool looking. i do think it would have been cool to give sephiroth a new design here too, as is he just looks the same as he did in every other game and it would have been neat to see him in a new outfit. overall the work from Nomura here is fantastic, even if maybe not quite as cool as many of the designs in dirge of Cerberus. that was a pretty high bar to clear though.

the music is very solid here too, on par with dirge but maybe not quite as good as the original games score. though it's still full of some of the most memorable and listenable music in the whole series. it's got a unique sound to it too, relying much more heavily on acoustic guitars which really makes it stand out even among other FF games, at times it can even remind me a little bit of TWEWY Moreso than a mainline FF game. this makes sense considering it was an OST by Takeharu Ishimoto who made the music for twewy and neo twewy, as well as the dissidia series, multiple kingdom hearts titles like 3D and birth by sleep, type-0 and most recently FF7 rebirth and bleach: rebirth of souls. a game I really need to get my hands on ASAP. some personal favourite tracks include "succession- theme of crisis core", "bombing mission" which is a fantastic remix, "mako city", "dreams and honor" as well as "protect your honor", "last order" and "the terrible truth". "roaming in the afternoon sun" is the most TWEWY sounding song on the OST and I adore it along with "where the light cannot reach" . "conflict" is great even if you do get a little tired of it by the end. "under the apple tree" is similarly twewyish and fantastic. "dark suits" is a perfect remix of the turks theme. "the scars that remain". it has one of the best renditions of "the flower blooming in the slums", "eyes the colour of the sky" is great too. " A Moment of Camaraderie", "true motives", "mako monopoly", "new assignment", "the shrouded village", "parting of ways", "the ominous mansion", "night of seclusion" and "duty and freedom" make up some other track list highlights. "escape from the highway", "wandering under the moonlight", "the soldier way" and "living legacy" make up the last tracks worth mentioning, that last one especially is a real highlight. as for my overall favourites. "Burdon to bear" had me almost in tears multiple times. "price of freedom" is the standout non vocal song from the game and also the track with the best usage, reals will know what I mean. the rendition of "aeriths theme" is up there too, as is "timely ambush" as my favourite of the battle themes alongside "vengeance on the world". "why" by ayaka is the best vocal theme and my overall favourite song on the OST, it's instrumental mix on the OST is great too.

Now as far as ports go you have really just the one for this original version. even now it's a PSP exclusive and has never really been ported to anything like the vita or current gen under any programs. it's a great port though and playing this on anything but that original low res psp screen would almost feel like blasphemy to me. the game benefits too much from it's portable nature to really fit a home console too. That said you can play a form of it on modern consoles with 2023's "crisis core: reunion". this is a remake made in the style of the 7 remakes but is much more of a straightforward remake than those were. from what i can tell gave the game slightly more actiony combat and a look more in line with the remake titles as well as new music and VA work, though very little was added beyond that. this would end up being one of the more important things to spawn from the compilation and zack himself even went on to have a much more prominent role in the remake titles. i assume this is because he was just that much of a fan favourite in this game. it would end up being the last of the major compilation titles released bar some books and a directors cut of advent children. It would be the last people would see the cast of the series, outside of mobile games, crossovers and dissidia, for quite some time until the remake series came along a few years ago. the game was also an early directing gig for one "Hajime Tabata" who you may also know for his work on games like kingdom hearts RE:coded, final fantasy XV and its various spinoffs as well as some personal favourite titles like the 3rd birthday and final fantasy type-0. a fantastic resume, at least i think so. with the specific team behind the game though, it's hard to say what they were also working on since the game is just credited to "square enix" though there's a lot of talent here shared with some other titles like dawn of mana, dirge of Cerberus, type-0 and FFXIII, so those are safe bets. all solid games too, it has to be said. crisis core is an easy recommendation. I'd hesitate to say weather it or dirge are my favourite of the compilation and i think that's a testament to just how good crisis core is. it plays great, looks great and has one of the best storylines in any FF game so it's a no brainer that i think it's a must play title. if you've at the very least finished the original FF7 then i think you should seek it out, but i would say try and play dirge beforehand if you can since this does have a few references to it, same with FF7, it's probably a good idea to finish that first.