While I failed the mission of securing a Crisis Core Slim PSP bundle I did pick up a copy of the game. Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII begins with a dramatic train sequence. Zack runs on top train cars and slices soldiers while screaming about how he is in soldier. Once the intro movie is over Zack has a chat with Angel over his cell phone and then rushes into “conflict mode” with a group of gun touting enemies.
Combat in Crisis Core is notably different from all of the Final Fantasy games. It actually feels more like Star Ocean. When you engage in battle the game switches over to a tiny arena where Zack can run around and slash enemies with his buster sword by pressing circle. To dodge gunfire you can do a ground roll with the square button. On the bottom right hand corner Zack has a stock of materia that you can rotate through with the shoulder buttons. Green material is used to cast spells and yellow command materia is for special attacks. Unlike Final Fantasy VII command material has it an AP meter, which is consumed when you use a command.
In the first fight Zack is granted –ga level material. Firaga unleashes a fury of three fireballs spreading outwards. Blizzaga makes a huge ice crystal drop from the sky. Thundaga calls a horizontal blast of lightning out of Zack’s hands. You don’t need to worry about aiming in Crisis Core. Zack locks on to targets with most spells. The exception is firaga. Since the three orbs of fire move at different angles you can hit three enemies at once. However, each spherical fireball does about 1/3 of the damage Thundaga does.
Once the soldiers are wiped out Zack runs into a behemoth and boss background music starts playing. Since the behemoth is huge you can hide a corner casting firaga and hit it three times. Or you dodge roll behind it, use the attack command a few times. Both techniques make the fight fairly easy, but that’s fair considering this is the first “boss” in the game. While the fight is going on the slot reels in the top left hand corner spin. During the behemoth encounter three pictures of Sephiroth matched up, which made Zack do a limit break style of attack.
Once the battle was over Zack “meets” Sephiroth in combat, but after a few strikes Sephiroth cracks his sword in half. Sephiroth is about to finish Zack off when Angel rushes in to save his life and turn off the virtual reality training system. That’s right the whole first mission was a simulation and it’s back to the real world with level 1 materia.
