Of Reflection: Happiness and Crisis Core
Firstly, I hate Crisis Core. It is the only game I have ever played that has had me feeling so torn about it. It is not a fun game. It has a very repetitive element to it that drags down the whole experience. The dialogue is hoaky, characterization is really non-existent for everyone but Zack (and, to a very minor extent, Cloud, but I don't know if that applies to the two people playing this that have never played FFVII).
I'm torn, though, because I love this game. No, the battles were not fun after twelve hours of pressing X. The battles stopped being fun after the first chapter of the game. The voice acting seemed very forced sometimes. Maybe this game is ruined by nostalgia. God knows it's caused my objectivity of other lesser things to go by the wayside. However, having just recently replayed FFVII, I realize that game, too, is one that I walked away from with a better experience than I did actually playing it.
Crisis Core achieves what very few PSP games really even try to do. It is a rare game that manages to be truly portable. The side missions can be completed in thirty seconds to five minutes. Only the very hardest missions will take more time than that. And, while the dialogue, characterization, and voice acting are generally below average, I still felt a connection to the characters. I was still depressed seeing Zack and Aerith together knowing their eventual fates. The ending was really spectacular.
Where the game fails is...well...the complete package. The DMW is broken. You can level up two to three times in one battle and then play for an hour or two and never level up again. The summons are pretty. Once. The limits are pretty. Once. The gimmick of seeing short scenes that reveal a little more about Zack's relationships with whatever character you managed to line up was amusing...once. Seeing the same scenes over and over without being able to skip them is absurd. Stop fucking doing that, Square.
The game was too easy. Playing it on Hard offers no rewards. The side missions do not offer a significant enough reward to really justify the higher difficulty of Hard because the mode offers nothing over its counterpart. And, for the record, Genesis is one of the worst characters I've ever seen in a game.
So, Crisis Core. I won't replay you, but I won't get rid of you. I was smitten by nostalgia, which made the experience worth it. Once.
In other news, today marks the first time in my life that I can remember crying because of joy. Congratulations, man behind the curtain. You've granted my wishes and now I feel like home is over the rainbow.
Judy Garland references end.
Post end.
I'm torn, though, because I love this game. No, the battles were not fun after twelve hours of pressing X. The battles stopped being fun after the first chapter of the game. The voice acting seemed very forced sometimes. Maybe this game is ruined by nostalgia. God knows it's caused my objectivity of other lesser things to go by the wayside. However, having just recently replayed FFVII, I realize that game, too, is one that I walked away from with a better experience than I did actually playing it.
Crisis Core achieves what very few PSP games really even try to do. It is a rare game that manages to be truly portable. The side missions can be completed in thirty seconds to five minutes. Only the very hardest missions will take more time than that. And, while the dialogue, characterization, and voice acting are generally below average, I still felt a connection to the characters. I was still depressed seeing Zack and Aerith together knowing their eventual fates. The ending was really spectacular.
Where the game fails is...well...the complete package. The DMW is broken. You can level up two to three times in one battle and then play for an hour or two and never level up again. The summons are pretty. Once. The limits are pretty. Once. The gimmick of seeing short scenes that reveal a little more about Zack's relationships with whatever character you managed to line up was amusing...once. Seeing the same scenes over and over without being able to skip them is absurd. Stop fucking doing that, Square.
The game was too easy. Playing it on Hard offers no rewards. The side missions do not offer a significant enough reward to really justify the higher difficulty of Hard because the mode offers nothing over its counterpart. And, for the record, Genesis is one of the worst characters I've ever seen in a game.
So, Crisis Core. I won't replay you, but I won't get rid of you. I was smitten by nostalgia, which made the experience worth it. Once.
In other news, today marks the first time in my life that I can remember crying because of joy. Congratulations, man behind the curtain. You've granted my wishes and now I feel like home is over the rainbow.
Judy Garland references end.
Post end.