Yeap, the blog is back, this time for Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII, I am going to write some impressions and interesting stuff found throughout the game. I am not done with Monster Hunter Portable 2nd, even more so after MHP 2nd G was announced, but the recent influx of PSP games means the monsters will have to wait until I am done with this, plus Jeanne D’arc and Final Fantasy Tactics (coming in two weeks time), possibly even Castlevania and Disgaea, both next month… It just crazy for the PSP now.

Back to Crisis Core, I got it from Play-Asia.com, and I have ordered it not long after pre-orders were opened, but unfortunately and not unexpected, it doesn’t comes with the ear phone. Otherwise, it’s the game that the Japanese is getting.

I am still pretty early in the game. I know it has been said millions of times before, but I am going to say it again here, the game is one of the best looking PSP games that I have played so far. Environment wise, and it’s probably a little weird to put it this way, Crisis Core is a combination of Metal Gear Solid Portable Ops’s industrial look and Monster Hunter Portable 2nd’s wilderness. So it’s incredibly varied, one moment I’m in a glass walled briefing room but it’s off to a village in the middle of a forest next. The entire Sin-Ra is in the game for you to explore as well, talking to the people apparently will unlock extra missions.

On the animation, well you can alway trust Square with this. It’s very detailed, for someone who only understand the Kanji part of the text, the only other things to look at during conversation is the characters’ gestures, and they are really well done, enough to tell you what’s going on sometimes.

Moving on to the battle scenes, and the only complaint pops up, the camera. It’s almost fixed and there’s very little you can do with it, so you’ll find yourself being obscured by the larger monsters or too far away from the action. But it won’t stop you from enjoying the game, and it’s not hard to get used to really, but I would imagine many mainstream reviewers will use this as a reason to reduce a point or two from their scores.

The story is incredibly fast paced, I have met lots of characters and monsters, but it’s a good way to keep you playing. One advice though, thanks to the Internet, lots of scenes I have encountered so far is on the Net, which reduced the surprise elements somewhat, so if you planned to get this one, stop visiting YouTube…

For a game as deep as this, the menu system is of great importance. And the interface is gorgeous to look at and intuitive to use, and this is coming from a designer. The only problems? Getting to know what each tab and buttons is about, it may seems daunting at first, but a few trials and errors (wasted some health items myself) will get you started in no time.

So your question might be how import friendly it is. As mentioned earlier, I know most of the Kanji, and thanks to MHP series, some Katakana, they helped quite a bit. Plus a detailed story and mission guide from a Chinese website, it becomes easy enough. I will write some guide in English over the weekend (hopefully, there are works need to be done) based on the strategy from Famitsu Taiwan if I got it on time, so do check back for that.

Posted in Blog, PSP on Friday, September 21st, 2007 at 8:58 am |
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