Final Fantasy: Crisis Core - Definitely A Crisis

Crisis Core came out finally last month. I was really excited of course being the Square Enix fan boy that I am. 10 years of waiting for another Final Fantasy 7 game that would promise to live up to the original without being a remake. I mean Dirge of Cerberus was alright, but not what I was hoping for. Square has never made first person/third person shooters of note and it was no exception. The story was decent but it felt more a movie than a game. (Mostly a work of having a lot of movie assets that didn't want to go to waste from Advent Children)

I was very disappointed with the Crisis Core though, and it wasn't a lack of story (actually that was part of it), but the repetitiveness and overall lack of content that the game provided. I feel like I am doing the same thing for hours on end, and thats because I am. I feel the ability to avoid 90% of battles is a blessing instead of a cheap bug. Missions are highly predictable because they are all the same.

For the most part, the story of Crisis Core is already known to the player, if they have ever played FF7, and why you would pick up Crisis Core if you haven't played FF7 I don't know; as you would find the story choppy and full of missing information that is implied from the first game. Thus, you would think that mechanics and game play would be top priority to sell the game since you are not really selling a "New Story".

Now for the most part the game is not "Terrible", it does have some beautifully rendered movie sequences, but these are few and far between, and the DMV system I find very annoying when I have no control over its movement. I think I would rather have an experience system so I can know how much longer before I level up. The Materia system isn't, dare I say, Bad? It is quite customizable, but with limited options, I feel as if I am simply buying experience and ability. This is not to mention that you basically need the high end materia later on in the missions to even survive the many one hit deaths that the enemies do to make the game "challenging".

I think that if more time was put into the missions and more mechanics were added to give them a bit of individuality, it would have made the game much better. I hate to say it though, I think this is the first time I have been very disappointed in a Final Fantasy game... and sadly it might be another 10 years before we see any more light shed on this great story.
Overall rating 6/10