Crisis Core -Final Fantasy VII-

Crisis Core -Final Fantasy VII- is an action-RPG from Square Enix for the PlayStation Portable. The game is a prequel to Final Fantasy VII and is also the fourth entry to the Compilation of Final Fantasy VII.

The game's tagline is "Men cry not for themselves, but for their comrades," a quote from LOVELESS.

Storyline
The game focuses around Zack Fair, a 1st Class SOLDIER and a war-hero, Cloud while he was a lowly Shin-Ra Guard, Sephiroth, and Zack's mentor, Angeal Hewley. Another character also present in the game is Aerith. This game takes place around the time Zack is promoted to 1st class while fighting the villainous SOLDIER, Genesis Rhapsodos until the time of his death (Last Order -Final Fantasy VII-) at the beginning of Final Fantasy VII.

Gameplay
Crisis Core is both an action and turn-based RPG, with a stream of extremely fast turns creating the illusion of real-time combat. Like the Square & Disney hybrid series Kingdom Hearts, the player chooses actions from a small menu, featuring attack, magic, special attack and item choices. The key feature of gameplay is the DMW - a small slot machine-like screen in the upper left-hand corner. Images and numbers scroll in each of the 3 slots continuously, consuming Soldier Points (SP). Combinations of sevens lead to special status effects, while having identical characters in the left and right slot opens up the modulating screen. Certain combinations of characters and numbers in modulating phase will allow the player to level up the character, power up materia and perform special moves and summons.

The player can choose whether to follow the game's story, which can be completed in around 15 hours of gameplay, or to complete missions at their disposition, which can be completed at 100% with over 50 hours of gameplay.

Materia is present as a part of the magic and ability system, just like Final Fantasy VII, but there are some differences in how it works. Summon Materia are no longer in control by the player, and instead, are added to the DMW. By special circumstances or more likely, at random, the DMW slots switch to the summoning scene, where one of the various summon materias are selected and performed by the player. Materia does not divide like it did in Final Fantasy VII, though it does level up, at random, if 2 similar numbers corresponding to the slot are drawn in a modulated phase; 1-4 as a SOLDIER 2nd Class, or 1-6 as a SOLDIER 1st Class. Materia may grant significant bonuses to Zack's HP, MP, AP, ATK, VIT, MAG, SPR, or LCK and Materia can now be customized through the "Materia Fusion" process.

Weapons are another thing that have been modified. Players are no longer allowed to buy and wield any weapons. The game begins with Zack holding the typical SOLDIER sword. Eventually, he moves on to wield the Buster Sword; however, there are some cases which some special weapons are utilized. For example, the umbrella stand during the Costa de Sol scene during Zack's vacation.

In addition, shops have also been changed. The shops in Crisis Core use a wireless system. In which players are allowed to enter and buy merchandises from the shop through the main menu. Addition in shops can be achieved by proceeding in the storyline, and also by doing various missions which rewards you with the address that grants access to the shop.

Special Edition Crisis Core PSP
Special Edition 10th Anniversary of Final Fantasy VII, Crisis Core silver PSP released only in Japan with the FFVII logo, Zack, Cloud, and Sephiroth emblazoned on the back. This special edition set was released on September 13th, 2007 along with the Japanese release of the game.

It comes bundled with a retail copy of Crisis Core, the special edition PSP-2000 (slim) unit covered in Tetsuya Nomura artwork, and a Buster Sword strap. Retailers also threw in a Crisis Core inner earphone set, supposedly as a pre-order bonus, although anyone who lined up on launch day was given the gift. All this came in a special box that seems to have been targeting collectors.

The PSP is Region Free - meaning the PSP can play any games from around the world however, it cannot play UMD Movies from the USA. Also, the version of Crisis Core bundled with it is a Japanese language version of the game which allows no options to switch to English. This bundle was produced in limited quantities of just 77,777 and retailed for 25,890 yen. Each individual special edition PSP is engraved with a serial number from 00001 to 77777. You can find these selling on eBay for upwards of $400-$600 each for opened and unopened sets.