@HallowMoonshadow yeah it’s good. Some of the most spectacular boss fights I ever had the pleasure to have.
It lacked a bit of RPG appeal for me, and I hope the next one will be different, but it does its thing really well and has an engrossing story.
I'm playing Crisis Core. It's pretty cool and I love having another adventure in the world of VII I have never experienced before.
At the same time: it's not the world that I love, or the concept of Shinra. I mostly love VII because of Cloud and the gang. The game is definitely fun, but it is very basic.
@Herculean So far I’m enjoying it, maybe more than I thought I would. The story gives really good context, and the gameplay is actually fun as well. As I said over on the top 5 thread, I think the portable nature of the original does hold it back from being a more cohesive experience since the emphasis is on the short, quick play sessions. But I do enjoy the characters and getting to mess around with materia builds again.
How far along are you?
“We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.”
@Th3solution I'm also enjoying it more than I thought I would!
I think the story works really well. It provides context, while simultaneously being very much its own thing.
What I am missing, though, is some of the charm Rebirth has. This might be an unfair comparison, but that's just because Rebirth happens to be the last game I beat before this, but it's also a fair comparison because this game serves as a prequel to that game. Rebirth is one of the most charming games, and that's because of its incredibly memorable and diverse cast. Whimsical characters, serious characters, and your party comes from all over the fantasy world it seems. Crisis Core reduces its scope, and with that loses something of what makes the world of VII so amazing. Everyone at SOLDIER is serious, heroic, confrontational. Without characters like Tifa and Cait you lose a bit of balance, where everyone is like a brooding Cloud.
Chapter 4 spoiler: Of course at some point Aerith is introduced, and you immediately notice the game becomes so much more relatable and engaging. She brings some light, different perspectives, etc.
What I'm saying is that to me, while Crisis Core is extremely well crafted, it does miss that mysterious sauce that VII does have. So I'm torn in that regard.
It definitely is not that cohesive that you can be in a reactor, about to engage a boss fight, and then can go on a treasure hunt to find a cook's missing knife. Personally, I don't mind it. I also feel like that was just how games were more like back then, not only the portable ones. It made me think about how much more simple games were back then, just focusing on providing some engaging entertainment. And worrying less about cohesiveness, reusage of assets and details like that. I love the dumb text based minigames too.
I was also reminded of the reviews of Assassin's Creed Shadows. It's a game I probably won't play, but I was surprised to read some of the criticisms in these reviews. It's praised for being the most beautiful world, but criticised for non-mo-cap animations, and there are discussions on historical accuracy. And I'm thinking: how did we get here? How did these become important things about a game to discuss, while at the same time you can just have Crisis Core's fun combat system, materia management and have that be enough.
And I fully agree that it's a lot of fun 'messing' with Materia and builds. I want to go as far to say that I'm actually enjoying it more in this game than in Rebirth. And that's not because this game's system is more interesting, but in Rebirth it became somewhat of an afterthought. In a game that already took 220 hours, I just couldn't be bothered to switch up loadouts every few minutes. In this game, and especially because you only have one character (which makes switching tactics less of a hassle) I'm constantly switching materia's in and out. Once I mastered them, or get tired of them, I just think of a new build. It's incredibly fun, and the 'less is more' approach of this game works very well.
I'm only 20 hours in, at chapter 5, so obviously my opinions might still change on anything I just said. I wonder how you are faring.
@Herculean Those are really great thoughts on Crisis Core and I quite agree. Although I haven’t yet played Rebirth, I think the same comparison to Remake can also highlight those points you made about the charm being slightly hampered by the restricted party. A lot of Remake’s runtime was collecting these characters and so I assume Rebirth will really be when they connect, but even the little time spent with them made for some good connections.
I’m actually pretty close to where you are in Crisis Core, after having spent a few more hours with it this weekend. I’m in the second half of Ch 4, just going through the mini games at Hojo’s lab. I probably spent 30 minutes replaying that really simple 5-second countdown mini game, mindlessly trying over and over to get 100% 😂. What I finally did was turn off the audio, which was actually distracting me, and just going off the visual clues and the haptic feedback of the DualSense it was easier to hit the timing that way. I finally got 100, so all the time wasn’t wasted at least😄
But yes, the first part of Ch 4 added some much needed variety with the introduction of Aerith. I’m really rusty on the details of Remake and also the OG FF7, but the way Zack falls through the roof is essentially the exact same way that Cloud and her meet. (?!) I don’t remember her saying anything about it to Cloud though, which is odd. Maybe I’m misremembering things but did she mention that another Soldier had fallen onto her flowers in the exact same way when she met Cloud? I really need to watch a synopsis of Remake after finishing this game and before I move onto Rebirth. 😅 But anyway, as an aside, I really adore Aerith in Remake and in Crisis Core. They do a great job making her relatable and charming with the voice acting and updated characterization. When I played the original PS1 game many years ago I didn’t ever feel that close to Aerith. Maybe I didn’t fully grasp her significance and her role but she always seemed a secondary character to me. Remake endeared her to me and Crisis Core so far is doing it further. Ditto for Zack, who was definitely a rushed character in the OG that served as a plot device but for which I didn’t really feel connected.
As for game itself, I keep getting tempted to play the side missions. I’m at 23% completion of them, according to the menu, which blows my mind because I feel like I’ve done a hundred of them. I think I’ll push to get to 25% to get the reward, and then try to pry myself away and mainline the story more after that and just follow a guide of doing just the critical side missions. There’s no way I’m getting 100% of those.
It does worry me about Rebirth, as I know there’s tons of side games and distractions. I was listening to a podcast which was saying that Rebirth could be beat in 40 hours by skipping all the side content and that makes for solid experience. I know that when I get to it that I’ll never be able to mainline it though. I have to dabble in the mini-games and side quests. But I don’t know if I have the patience to pour 220 hours 😄, but we’ll see. I actually don’t think I’ve ever put that many hours into a single game. Rebirth might be the first though!
“We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.”
@Th3solution I wanted to respond much earlier, but it's been a few busy days in the Herculean household. I even wrote a response, but got caught up in some day-to-day thing and accidentally closed the browser. Such is life.
If you played Remake, I think you know exactly what I mean with regards to feeling connected to Cloud and especially friends. Rebirth goes even further at making you feel connected to these characters, giving them moments together too.
Many have said something along the lines of 'skip the sidestuff and mainline it and Rebirth has a wonderful campaign'. Those people have tried to enjoy the game to the best of their possibilities, but so much is lost when people factor time in their enjoyment of a game. Of course the pacing of Rebirth is absurd, but... it's also a small sacrifice for an extraordinary adventure unlike other games.
Rebirth is a different game from Remake. It was a bit like playing Yakuza to me. In Yakuza wasting time in the Japanese nightlife is kind of more the point than the whole main story. Managing real estate, go-kart races and visiting cabarets is more Yakuza than the gangster drama that is the main story to me. For me Rebirth is just about spending time with my virtual friends, growing closer, doing stuff together. Maybe I'm just easily pleased.
Rebirth is among the games with the most hours put in. Even more than Persona 5 Royal, which is mindblowing to me. But there have been a few games that I put way more time in: Rocket League, The Witcher 3, Dragon Age Inquisition, Skyrim and probably some more.
The minigames in Crisis Core are dumb, but... they are kind of fun? It's weird. The game is not a brilliant game or anything, but I enjoy playing it a lot. I got that minigame in 3 tries, but reading about it online I've come to realize I was lucky!
Regarding Aerith, you are right that the scene was extremely similar in some ways. And, yes, that was on purpose. It's even addressed in Remake, but in a subtle, if-you-know-you-know way. It goes without saying that this plot point is further explored in Rebirth, so you really have no reason not to play the game at some point!
And I fully agree that I never really warmed up to her character in the original FFVII. But since Remake she's been growing on me. That is in part due to the voice acting, but I also think I understand her more, because more time is spent on fleshing out her character. I misunderstood her, for thinking she was naive, but she's actually quite aspirational.
I really like doing Crisis Core's missions. I know they're just 'walk up to enemy x and kill it', but I'm enjoying them, so I'm going to keep doing them until I get bored or the battles become too hard. There's no way I'm going to get to 100%, but we'll how where the game takes me.
@Th3solution How are you faring? I'm at chapter 6 and things have slowed down a bit, as I'm still trying to do all missions, now also boosting my buster sword proficiency (ch. 6) and playing Prince of Persia as well. But I'm making progress.
@Herculean Doing well, my friend. I’m roaming around Ch 5 still, but will try to get some more time on this weekend. I spent several hours on SW Outlaws this weekend so have only put a couple hours into Crisis Core. I did get the squatting mini-game trophy though! 😅
I also hit the 25% mission completion (and have even gone beyond now) so my brain is trying to convince my ego to push forward the mainline content a little quicker. 😛
“We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.”
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