Expecting: Crisis Core

Originally posted on ff7citadel.com and the now defunct fwxd.net.

It isn’t without a pessimistic outlook that many a Final Fantasy fan can look at the looming release of Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII, on September 13th. The PlayStation Portable game, the fourth in a Compilation, is to many just one more way to milk the success of a past blockbuster. Laying in the shadow of something gamers around the globe hold so close to their hearts, can Crisis Core deliver anything but complete disappointment?

History isn’t Square’s greatest supporter when we think about Crisis Core. Especially when large parallels can easily be made with one Dirge of Cerberus, a co-member of the compilation. Like Crisis Core, Dirge decided to place you in the role of a more minor character in the Final Fantasy VII tale, where it could expand on their back-story and characteristics in places that the PlayStation game had not.

Likewise, Crisis Core contains a handful of cameo appearances from Final Fantasy VII’s main party while chucking more new, less than convincing, friends and foes at you than what you would find in a bar room brawl. And it’s in these new additions to what is now a series in a series that the fans explode upon.

New characters, organisations and “hidden” research facilities spring up in more places than a whack-a-mole. For example, why the compilation developers saw fit to stick the blockhead 2D Azul in both Dirge and Before Crisis, games that happen before and after the original game when he was completely absent from it, boggles the mind. But perhaps more controversial is the idea behind the mysterious “G”.

Appearing in Dirge’s secret ending with the signature one-wing, Square is clearly attempting to create history for a character that is absolutely nothing more than Sephiroth with a different name. What I would have given to be a fly on the wall of that developer meeting, I can’t tell you.

Going into Crisis Core, they have already decided to set it prior to the original game (because quite clearly two sequels is the magic number) and that Zack must be the star role as he is the closest possible person a gamer could play without physically giving them Cloud himself. Now all that remains is for the villain to be chosen.

Considering that Shinra currently employs Zack and that they won't fall for another seven years, they are completely out of the question. Sephiroth too, is off the list due to the fact he won’t go bananas for another two years (although the game will lead to this event). We therefore have a Cloud-type protagonist who needs an opponent of his own.

Tetsuya Nomura, seemingly the only character designer at Square, must have truly earned his pay check the day he created Genesis, a man with one wing who clearly has a slight “nark” against the Shinra Corporation. Thus an epic battle between a Cloud look-a-like and a man who is Sephiroth, while not being Sephiroth, will begin in gamers hands when the game hits retail.

Stop me from jumping from the rooftops now.

Of course, while this isn’t to say Crisis Core won’t be a superb game, it’s certainly not of the cards quite yet. The graphics will be second to none on the PlayStation Portable and the frame rate and speed of the game are certainly at a much better advantage now that Sony has lifted the cap off the machines processor. The extra memory in the new PSP-Lite (which include those 77,777 Crisis Core ones) is also a bonus.

Game play wise, the game looks extremely promising from the trailers, arcing more towards an action RPG, something Square certainly has more experience in than a PS2 third person shooter. So then, would Crisis Core in fact get more attention if it wasn’t covered in Final Fantasy VII icing?

Perhaps Square-Enix’s real weakness is its fear that anything not Final Fantasy branded will be swept under the carpet, because following some atrocious attempts at exploring more of the VII story, that is the real problem.

The game is clearly good, possibly great, but its weakness stems from where its tale originates. Final Fantasy VII’s credits rolled when the story was finished, and while questions were left unanswered, that was made on the deliberate part of the developers at the time. It was a story to be marvelled and discussed, but it was not a story to be continued.

With sequels, prequels, movies, animes, cell phone games and additional merchandising and limited editions, the real question is not will Crisis Core be a disappointment, but when this is going to end? The answer?

An unquestionable remake, whether you want it or not, that will further split the fan base apart.

The real lesson Square-Enix should take from the Compilation of Final Fantasy VII is a simple one. There is milking it, and then there is milking it.