Review #211: Pokemon Omega Ruby

 Hoenn is back... oh god.

 You knew it was coming. Everybody and their dogs knew that the Hoenn remake was coming. Usually regarded as one of the weakest installments, alongside Gen IV, for some reason, now it turns out it's everyone's favorite generation, go figure. But I'm not like them. I've never been particularly fond of Hoenn(I am a fan of Sinnoh however, by the by), so I wasn't really looking forwards to Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire, but I wasn't planning on skipping it either!

 The story is... the same as in every other Pokemon game, you, a kid, are entrusted with a Pokemon out of three possible species, and it's your goal in life to become The Pokemon Champion, by gathering all 8 badges and defeating the Elite 4, while dealing with a crime organization that has evil plans. You can also dabble into collecting the 700 plus creatures, if you will. That said, the story does have some charm and some of the series' first, for instance, you have two rivals, albeit one later decides that he or she can't stand up to you and challenges you with discovering more 'mons, while you get to see the other one grow from a timid boy into a fully fledged Pokemon trainer. Depending on which version you got, the bad guys will be either Team Magma or Team Aqua, in my case, Omega Ruby, Team Aqua aided you in defeating Team Magma. Their involvement is... it's there. I mean, it's hard to be afraid of impending doom when you can leisure take the time to challenge Pokemon Gyms instead of trying to stop these guys, lest not we forget that their leader is an absolute clown and his lackeys lack any kind of intimidation. To be fair, this is a kid's game, so I shouldn't be expecting a Shin Megami Tensei-type storyline, but I didn't care for it. New to the Remake is Episode Delta, which is a weird retelling of Pokemon Emerald. Kinda. This is a bit more interesting, and it kinda confirms that there's two alternate time-lines, one in which Mega Evolution wasn't discovered and one in which it was.

 There's no use in explaining how Pokemon works, everybody knows by now and it's not changing any time soon, so I'd rather write about the game features. Customization is gone, and it sucks. The developers explained it by claiming that they want each region to feel unique. Sure, buddy, that's why the whole Pokemon Amie was ripped straight outta X and Y, why it's always 8 Gym leaders, always some Crime Organization with a silly name that gets in your way, always an Elite 4 and a champion. Removing features is the way to make each region feel unique, it really is. I hate you Gamefreak. Why remove fun features like Seasons, Trainer Customization, Secret Bases(After Gen III) and the such just because? On the other hand, Secret Bases are back. Secret Bases are customizable areas that can be furnished with, well, furniture, dolls, posters and even trainers for visitors to challenge. Creating a room is fun, if limited, and it's a feature that I've missed, even though Gen IV's underground was a pretty neat alternate take on the concept. A neat touch is that the map now tells you if your Secret Base is in the area you are in, which is a godsend as I would always forget where my base was in Ruby!

 HMs are back, as usual, but they are a bit overwhelming this time around. You'll have to make use of: Flash, Cut, Strength, Break Stone, Secret Power(To make bases), Surf, Dive, Waterfall and Fly. It translates into a ton of useless moves that are required to get through the game. Worst part? They are mostly obstacles with no substance. There's a block in the way, and you need strength to push it. It'd be better if there were more Puzzles revolving the use of these instead of simply obstacles. Obstacles that reset every time you leave the area, so that you need to carry your useless HM Slaves if you plan on going back again on foot. That said, there's a new feature, and in my opinion, what they should've done with every other HM, Soar. Later in the game you get the Eon Flute that allows you to summon Latios, it doesn't even matter if you released him, he will come back and allow you to take into the skies. The getting onto Latios animation does get a bit dull after a while, and it can't be skipped, but soaring through the air is very fun and let's you free a slot on your roster, so that you don't need Fly anymore. This is what they should've done with every other HM. Even better, you can drop off almost anywhere you want, instead of just Towns.

 Sneaking is new to the game too, by lightly tilting the analog nub you can sneak onto Pokemon that rear their heads over tall grass, water or earth, this lets you net Pokemon with rare moves and good IVS, which is pretty neat. There's also the Pokenav, that tells you when you have caught every possible Pokemon in an area, as well as which Pokemon you can catch in it. It's unfair to expect new mons out of a remake, but there's a whole bunch of new Mega evolutions, and most of them look pretty cool. Mauville has gotten completely redesigned into Mallville(Not official), and it's now a huge town, not unlike Lumiose City. I didn't mind it to be honest, but I can see how some die-hard gen III fans might, heck, one of the things I liked the most about Heart Gold and Soul Silver was just how loyal it was to the source material. Naturally, Pokemon Contests and Pokeblocks are back, if that's your thing, I certainly didn't care much for them. Oh, and there's also a Cosplay Pikachu that you can dress up and learn exclusive moves(Depending on the dress), which I wouldn't have a problem with if only it wasn't Pikachu who always gets the most attention, it's a bit jarring hearing him cry 'Pika' while every other 'mon shouts some garbled digital sounds.

 One thing to keep in mind is that this is a Ruby and Sapphire remake, so none of the Emerald features made it in, which is sure to disappoint a few, they even tease about it! At least we get X and Y's Battle Maison, Y'know, because each Region should feel unique(No, I'm not letting it go). There's quite a bunch of post-game content, mostly Legendary Pokemon Hunting, there's almost as many legendaries to catch as in Sinnoh, although some of the requisites may require a guide. Did you know that which member of the Spirit Trio you get depends on the time of the day? Azelf only has a hour-wide time window from 8 PM to 9PM, while the Legendary Dogs require you having Ho-Oh or Lugia, and which one appears depends on the time of an hour in which you are(X:00 - X:20 gets you Raikou, for instance). Speaking of time, there's a couple of daily activities, like the Mirage Spots where you can catch Pokemon from other Regions, which change daily, and the Battle Resort that let's you fight trainers for experience daily. It's pretty useful, since they have high level mons, but X and Y did it much better, since the Trainers Rotated all the time instead of daily, putting a time barrier on your training is a drag! There's some trainers that you can rebattle, but it's not quite as convenient. And that's the thing, X and Y made it so convenient and easy to train low level monsters, that it makes ORAS alternatives look bad.

 Since I mentioned X and Y, ORAS carries over some of the problems as well. The graphics are a bit too much for the game to handle, at least on the Vanilla 3DS, sometimes the FPS will drop during some camera angles, which doesn't affect gameplay at all, but don't even bother turning the 3D on as it will make battles run pretty poorly. There are still some lazy animations, like Double Kick, which still has the Pokemon jump in place instead of, well, kicking. And the Exp. Share is still a problem, I like that it grants experience to all your Mons, but you receive it TOO EARLY. I'd be OK with it if you got it right before Victory Road, but by the time I challenged the Elite 4, my starter was on the high 70s and the rest of my party on the high fifties, and I didn't have any kind of trouble dealing with their stronger teams on my second time around, not to mention that I didn't lose a single 'mon on my way through the 8 Pokemon Gyms. The updated Exp. Share is a good idea, but you get it too early which makes the game too easy. There's also the issue I had about the Pokemon types, as I said before, for the first 3 generations, knowing a Pokemon's type was as easy as looking at its color scheme, but new mons are a bit harder to figure out, there should be a way to check a Pokemon's typing during battle, at least during offline play, I can't remember the type of every single 700 plus monster, and it's silly to expect anybody to.

 The presentation didn't get any major updates from X and Y, and frankly, it didn't need to. That said, it's a bit... amusing to see the very same battle backgrounds from the last game, they could've at least updated the City background, but oh well. As for Hoenn itself... I don't like it much, but the Gyms are much better than before, both in design and looks, and the Elite 4 Chambers are a total knock out, blowing every other Elite 4 out of the water, can't wait to see how, if, they top them off. I never found Hoenn's soundtrack to be particularly noteworthy, and it still isn't, but the few new tunes, particularly Wally's Theme, are downright amazing. Every new tune is pure gold.

 At the end of the day, Pokemon is Pokemon, even at its worst(Generation 3) it's still fun to play. After playing the remake, Hoenn still remains as my least liked location, but at least now it's a bit more fun to go through. ORAS aren't as good as they could've been, but hey, Shiny Primal Groudon is badass.
 7.5 out of 10

Archile's Grab-bag: Massive Edition

 Went abroad, yadda yadda yadda, bought games , yadda yadda yadda.

Dragon Ball Xenoverse: 'Nother year, 'nother Dragon Ball game. This one is made by DIMPS, the Budokai/Burst Limit devs, which is my favorite branch of DB games, but in the Tenkaichi style. It looks pretty dope.

 Under Night In-Birth Exe: Late: Y'know it's a Japanese game when the name is in English and it makes no sense. By the Melty Blood creators, I've been keeping an eye out for this one ever since it was announced for the Arcades. It looks pretty dope.

 Escape Dead Island: This game got terrible reviews.... yet it always seemed to me as a game that I'd like to play. And I got it for 19.99, so I can't complain if it sucks too badly.

 Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate: I think it's wrong of me to call myself a fan of the franchise, since I only played Tri and don't have any plans on playing the old games(Some peeps told me that the older ones aren't worth it), but I'm pretty dang interested in similar games and future games, case in point, MH 4 Ultimate!

 The Legend of Zelda - Majora's Mask 3D: Majora's Mask was a game I got as a gift for finishing School.... And sold about 10 years later alongside my other N64 games because I was an idiot. Anyways, Majora's Mask is back.

 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: I had no plans to watch the movie, as much of a fan as I am of TMNT. That said, people were saying that this game was a pretty good Diablo-like game, so I said what the hell!

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles - Danger of the Ooze: Two TMNT games...? TURTLE MONTH 2015 CONFIRMED, BOOYAKASHA!

 Haunting Ground: One of PS2's most forgotten games, I've been wanting to play this one for a while, but the price was a bit prohibitive, but now i have my chance!

  Silent Hill  4 - The Room: As far as I'm concerned, this was the first Survival Horror game I've ever finished. As much as I love horror flicks, I don't like the genre when it comes to games, but I've a soft spot for this one!

 Legacy of Kain - Defiance: I tried Soul Reaver 1 and 2, but never liked'em too much... but I did enjoy this one. And I was reading the lore of the series and slowly got interested in it... I'm gonna get the other LoK games(Soul Reaver 1 and 2, Legacy of Kain 1) and give'em a whirl this year.

 Tomba!: One of those expensive PS1 games I've always wanted to play... and now I can!

 Tomba! 2 - The Evil Swine Returns: Now this one I played back in the day, and I absolutely adored it, can't way to get back into it!

 Shinobido 2 - The Revenge of Zen: I might've bought a Vita. I liked Tenchu 3, and the video I watched of this game looked pretty good, so why not?

 Street Fighter X Tekken: The game that exemplifies everything that is wrong with Capcom and Videogames in general.... Am I gonna have a field trip with this one!

Persona 4 - The Golden: Persona 4 is among my favorite RPGS ever created, shame Atlus milked it to death. Shame I'm encouraging them to by buying this one. I dunno, the fans are mixed on this one, a lot of them hate the new tsundere-waifu-type character introduced in the port that is now shoe-horned into being a major part of the plot... I'm gonna give it a fair chance, but knowing my tastes... I think I'm not gonna like the new stuff.

Borderlands 2(Vita): See the picture? There's no Picture, I got the digital edition. I would've never imagined that I would've been able to play one of my favorite games on the go. Am I loving this one!

Month Overview: February

 Games finished in February 2015:
Retro Game Challenge                                                     8.5
Megaman X Command Mission                                      8.0
Half Minute Hero                                                             9.5
The Sims                                                                          5.0
Half-Life                                                                          8.5
Power Rangers Super Legends - 15th Anniversary         5.5
Gods Eater Burst                                                              8.5
Crisis Core - Final Fantasy VII                                        4.0
Einhander                                                                         8.0


 Overall strong month, with only Crisis Core to blemish it. Man, was Crisis Core bad, I was so surprised to find out that it was written by the same guy that wrote Final Fantasy VII... The story did so many miss steps, remember how Sephiroth was supposed to be an anomaly in how strong he was? Memory Cloud was level 6-7 while Sephiroth was on the late 60s, if I remember correctly, to show you the wide difference between Sephiroth and the rest of the First Class SOLDIERs... except that now Sephiroth had to equals, in Angeal and Genesis... and eventually Zack too. Hilariously enough, Zack can't do half the amazing stuff Genesis, Angeal and Sephiroth pull, yet we are to believe that he is just as strong... And when Zack got promoted he wasn't even half as good as Sephiroth, while even have all these people on the same class? It made sense before, since it was only Seph, but if you've such power houses, it might be time for a new Rank or something.... or how about the fact that they felt the need to reboot the SOLDIER first class and Turks costumes to black, for whatever reason,  or even the randomness of the gameplay.... Man, Crisis Core just makes me angry.


 Game of February 2015:

 Half-Minute Hero, on the other hand, made me very happy. It's an amazing game, with a hilarious premise and a great execution. It's GOTY material no doubt. It's a tad disappointing that the sequel didn't get a physical release outside Japan, guess I'm gonna have to cave in and get it on Steam.

 Runner-up:

 Speaking of great games, Gods Eater Burst. It was so much fun that unless I found myself grinding for rare drops, it was hard to notice just how little meat to the game there was. Few monsters and few environments should've spelt death for the game, but the game was fun enough. At least for the 50+ hours I invested.

Now Playing: Pokemon Omega Ruby

 'Nother Pokemon generation, 'nother Pokemon remake.

 Whoopty do! So Omega Ruby, officially started it. I mean, what is there to say? They removed customization, with sucks since the Ruby's cap is terrible, but now you can run in diagonals, which is all kinds of awesome. I mean, what is there to say? It's Pokemon, it's the same game it's ever been, I like it.

 I guess I could write a bit about my history with Ruby? I bought Ruby pretty much at release, and at the time, I remember hating the new monsters(I still do!), but there were some standouts, like Groudon and Torchic, 'sides, I hadn't seen Generation 4 and how bad they could get, so I don't dislike them as much now a days. Trainer Bases were something I absolutely adored, it was like a enhanced version of your Room in Gold and Silver, however, I would've liked some way of knowing WHERE your Secret Base was, since coming back to the game after some weeks meant I would forget! I also remember being extremely disappointed that there was no Johto after finishing the game, no other game after Gold or Silver would house 16 badges ever again.

 For as much flak as I give Ruby, it's quite probably the Pokemon game I replayed, in its entirety, the most. After I first finished the game, a bazillion years later I would transfer all my 'mons to Pearl, and I gave it two other playthroughs to farm Legendaries and the other two starters to my Platinum game. Eventually, I would replay it again in order to transfer every Ruby 'mon to Heart Gold. At that time my Wi-Fi was being wonky, so I didn't bother farming legendaries, plus, I had everything I needed to fill the dex in Platinum, so my life long dream of completing the Dex had been fulfilled. Kinda. I eventually completed it in Y though!

 Expectations? I dunno. I'm open to the idea of being surprised, but I'm not particularly fond of Hoenn, and the removal of Trainer Customization was, in my eyes, a huge step backwards. But then again, Mega Beedrill is all kinds of badass... Even though my Mega of Choice is, usually, Scizor.

Review #210 - Einhander

 Killer AIs are so 80s.

 Remember the 90s? Remember when Squaresoft would go outsider its comfort zone and create some great titles that weren't RPGs? I remember.  Einhander is a vertical shoot'em up that brings its own unique spin on the genre, and it's pretty dang good.

 Should I bother with the story? Who plays shoot'em ups for the story? There actually is an story to Einhander, it's pretty dark and grim, and even holds some twists if you manage to make it far enough. I didn't care for it, and neither should you, but it's amusing that Square went out of its way to give it such an involved plot. It's not bad, it's actually fairly interesting, but me, personally, didn't care for it. The game can be played on Easy, Normal or Hard, it's a seven stage romp that can be finished in under an hour if you know what you are doing. I'm terrible at these games, so I had a hard time finishing it in Easy, but the game is far from a bullet curtain, if you've the skill, it's probably quite manageable. That said, if you lose a life, you are sent back to a checkpoint, so you can't just force your way through. One thing to keep in mind is that you can't save your progress, so when you start the game, you better commit to it. Initially there's 3 ships, but you can unlock another 2, one by finishing the game on Hard while using less than two continues(Evidently, this is far beyond my skills) and another one by achieving 15 bonuses, which is easy if you know how to attain these bonuses.

 The game offers some very interesting mechanics, and they change a little depending on which ship you pick. The game is named after the Arm your ship possesses, which you can use to punch the enemies behind or below you, or to hold the various weapon pods. There's a wide variety of weapons, some stronger than others, and each weapon can be used in two different positions, above or below you, which you can be changed at will, some just change if they fire below or above your machine gun rounds, but others may shoot behind you, depending on where you equip them, While you can't save the game midway through your run, the game is saved after you win or run out of continues, and every pod that you grabbed gets 'saved', this way you can choose to start with that weapon equipped the next time you play, which also means you are re-equipped with it every time you respawn. These weapons have a secondary function... you can use them as shields. While your ship dies in one shot, if you time it, or reposition yourself so that a bullet hits a pod, it will tank the shot for you! Pods have limited 'endurance', so they aren't such a commodity.

Every ship comes outfitted with a standard machine gun, the only weapon that houses unlimited ammo, but they use the pods in different ways. One Ship has an enhanced Machine Gun, but can only wield one weapon at a time. Another one allows you to use two pods at a time, but having two pods means that you can't use the machine gun, so you will have to consume ammo, plus, depending on the pods, you may get one of those that shoots behind you if equipped in a certain position, so double fire may be an impossibility. The third one can only equip one pod at a time, but allows you to store up to three different pods. As for the unlockable ships, one can't equip pods(But has a waaay better normal gun) and the other one is an enhanced version of the third ship, that can store almost infinite ammo of each pod(You have to collect the ammo though!).

 As far as looks go... it's alright, I guess. Bullets are clearly defined, and I didn't have trouble spotting them, most of the time, if I got shot down, either I knew why or I got distracted. Something I liked is how the game becomes clearer as you go along, at the start you are in a city, at night, but by stage 4 it's already morning and you are raiding a base! The music is incredible, it's really, really good, it gets you pumped for what's coming, I don't think there was a single track I disliked

 I'm not fond of shoot'em ups, and I'm not good at them, but I liked this one, and I kept coming back to it until I eventually finished it(On easy) which speaks volumes of the game's quality. The entry barrier is a bit higher than other shoot'em ups, which means I'm not sure if anybody else who isn't fond of the genre will like it though.
 8.0 out of 10

Now Playing: Jeanne D'Arc

 'Tis pretty dope.

 It probably wasn't the brightest idea to begin a new game when the month is almost over. It's also, probably, a bit too early buuut, these are supposed to be my very early impressions(Since I like seeing how, if, my appreciation for a game changes between how I first felt when I played and how I do after finishing).

 ANYWAYS, I'm liking it. The game is gorgeous, beautiful animated cut-scenes and very detailed and good looking in-game 3D models. The gameplay is simple, but I think I'm gonna like this 'Transform' ability on Jeanne, she gets extra turns whenever she slays an enemy! I wonder if I can exploit it by killing allies.... 'Tis good, I like Jeanne as a lead.

Review #209: Crisis Core - Final Fantasy VII

 Oh, boy...

 Final Fantasy VII is my favorite game of all time, there's not a single thing I hate about it. Well, there wasn't, until "Compilation of Final Fantasy VII" was announced. I loved Final Fantasy VII, imagine me completely elated by the news! Oh, I was younger back then, I didn't know just how badly they would try to milk the game that functioned perfectly as a stand alone story. They would devalue the character development Cloud went through with Advent Children, as well as managing to shoe-horn appearances by Zack and Aerith, not to mention devalue Sephiroth as a villain by bringing him back, just because. Or how about having the TURKS fight a mysterious previous instance of AVALANCE in Before Crisis? No, I am not a fan of everything that happened after Final Fantasy VII, the Final Fantasy games work as stand alone games, the moment they try expanding upon it, be it The After Years, X-2 or XIII-2 and XIII-3... well, the original XIII was terrible, so those don't count, they spit on the original game.

 Here's the first problem with Crisis Core: There's no story to tell. Really, Final Fantasy VII told you everything you needed, or wanted, to know about Sephiroth, about Zack and his relationship with Aerith and Cloud. There was no mysterious events to deepen, nothing that needed fleshing out. There was no story to tell. That means that they had to create a bunch of new characters that are inconsequential, since the main story has been told and this is nothing but filler. We have Genesis, which is Sephiroth but isn't Sephiroth and wears a red coat. The character is insufferable, something bad happens, Genesis is there and quotes LOVELESS(An in-game poem), and you might fight him or not. 90% of his dialogue is made up of LOVELESS quotes. His motivation is as vain as his personality, they probably realized you were gonna hate him, so throughout the entire game you fight his 'copies', so that you can take out your anger on them. Oh, and spoilers, he is forgiven at the end, so that he may save the world one day after Dirge of Cerberus. Because Nomura was a fan of Gackt and had to have him on the game, and of course he had to have a big part on it. They even shoehorn him into events that happened during FFVII's flashbacks. We also have Dr. Hollander, who is Dr. Hojo except he's not. He's a terrible villain, and the game has you chasing after him most of the time. They even tried to make light of it by giving him a 'funny' running animation. Terrible character. Lastly, there's Angeal, the original owner of the Buster Sword and Zack's mentor. This character had a lot of potential, the idea of a mentor was good, he gets some of the best lines in the game, in a game full of great dialogue(Shame the story is so bad!), but it quickly goes down the hole as he 'develops'. His drive is not convincing, and I felt as if they didn't handle the character very well.

 Hilariously enough, they gave the Buster Sword some backstory, and now it's supposed to be Angeal and Zack's legacy. Y'know, the worst weapon that Cloud could equip in FF7? The first Sword you unequipped and were HAPPY to? A weapon weaker than a bat with nails found in the Temple of the Cetra? Yeah, now that Sword that Cloud stops using after a couple of minutes of gameplay is supposed to be a big deal. Hilarious. Now then, my problem isn't with it being a legacy weapon, it works for Zach's story arc and development, my problem is with the ridiculous backstory behind its creation and how it costed Angeal's father's life. They also tried so hard to be Final Fantasy VII, they recreated some scenes, which is terrible. Having old moments remade with this engine, that's good, but recreating scenes but with Zack on Cloud's place is terrible, now we are to believe that Aerith and Zack met in the same way she did with Cloud, with almost the exact same dialogue. Or how they redid FF7's opening but with Zack coming out of the train, but giving it the flimsy excuse of it being a simulation. That's bad. Pandering for the sake of pandering is bad. The story is oddly paced as well, one of the worst chapters having you go from place to place talking with different NPCs, while the main 'narrative' unfolds via the Mails that you get. It's not a good story, and it's badly told. That said, it does have some good moments, like the way Cloud and Zack met, which was handled pretty well, seeing a nice Sephiroth was also interesting, and while the story is so bad... the dialogue is really good. I also really liked Zack, he is so cheery and happy, unlike sassy Cloud. The Ending was excellent as well, it's a shame you have to trudge through the rest of the game to get to it.

 As for the gameplay, where to start with... In the game you play as Zack, d'oh, with the camera centered on his back, though you can rotate it with the shoulder buttons. The game has random encounters, kinda. The places where Random Encounters can take place are scripted, so walking on them will trigger the encounters(It's usually round, wide areas), but you can skip some by walking on the sides of the area, that said, if you are unlucky to finish a battle close to said sides, you might accidentally trigger the same encounter just a few steps after the fact. It's not the best of approaches, but it could've been worse. The game is pretty linear, sometimes you are allowed to walk around through Midgar and unlock Optional Missions or do some side activities, but every time you get shipped outside Midgar, there's little in the way of exploration. Now then, these optional missions can be accepted at any time provided you are standing over a Save Point. These missions are.. dull. There's over 200 missions, and all of the same are the same, you get thrown on some dungeon, need to find a certain monster and kill it. Doing more than 5 of them in a row is a drag. What's worse, it's easy to get frustrated or overleveled, since the way these unlock is terrible. For some reason, you can do some high-level missions at the START of the game, yet by advancing through the game, or talking to NPC's later down the road, you may unlock Easy missions. Why? Why not tie the difficulty of the missions that you unlock to the time and place you are at in the game? I, foolishly, thought to finish all missions, and spent three hours doing missions at the beginning of the game. Needless to say, that left me overleveled for the rest of the game. And the only reason I stopped was because enemies had unavoidable(At the time) Death spells that prevented me from going onwards. It makes no sense to let you attempt these nigh impossible odds so early in the game, but unlock trivial missions, with pitiful rewards(Since you'll be more leveled) later in the game.

 You can equip up to six Materia on Zack, the objects that allow you to use spells, skills or passive power ups, as well as up to four different equipment pieces. Battles play out in real time, you can move Zack around, and select from your Attack, Spells, Skills or Item with the shoulder buttons. It's a bit impractical when moving around through your different possibilities, but you can at least pick the order in which your Materia appears, so that you can have your most commonly used spells closer to Attack(the default option). You can also use Square to try to dodge, or Triangle to block. The combat is... alright, but it can get dull after a while. Zack picks the target nearest to him, and you can't switch between targets, which wasn't much of an issue, maybe because I was overleveled for most of the game, but still annoying. Speaking of annoying, certain large enemies and bosses have unavoidable attacks. Really, they will trigger a cut-scene, there's no build up for you to try to cancel it, and do damage to you, with no chance to avoid or mitigate it. What the hell? I never lost to a boss due to this, but it's certainly possible, what a terrible, terrible design choice. But that's not even the biggest issue with the game...

 That being the randomness of the game. Level ups? Random. Limit Breaks? Random. Leveling up your Materia? Random. Summons? Random. You read that right, all of those are random. During battle, instead of experience points you earn SP, which is used to keep the 3 reels on the upper part of the screen spinning. Depending on the numbers you get, you will get different buffs, like temporal invincibility, or temporal infinite MP. The reels are made up of characters(Like Cloud and Sephiroth) and numbers, if the two characters on the left and ride reel turn up the same(Say, Cloud-Still Spinning-Cloud) you will enter 'Limit Verge', which PAUSES THE GAME in order to give you a close up of the reels. No, you cannot 'cancel' Limit Verge. Now, if the center reel ends on the same characters as the reels on the side, you will execute a Limit Break. Plus, if on Limit verge you get three sevens Zack will level up, while getting two of the same number will level up the Materia on that slot. Yes, it's very possible not to get a single level up on one of your Materia through the entire game. What where they thinking? I heard that there was an invisible XP counter that made it likelier for a level up to happen, but that's a lie. I spent about 30 minutes fighting and finally got a level up... and then got another level up on the very next random encounter. Leveling up is entirely random. It's a terrible game mechanics that sucks the fun out of fighting. Innovation for the sake of Innovation is not a good thing, get that through your thick skulls, Squeenix.

 If there's one front in which Squeenix never disappoints, it's graphics. The game looks gorgeous, the in-game graphics are nothing short of amazing, while the FMV cut-scenes are breathtaking to say the least. Plus, the game employs a lot of familiar enemies and bosses from Final Fantasy VII, seeing them with such a high polygon count made me feel all happy inside. And made me wish for a FFVII remake with these kind of graphics. Who needs HD, just make it look good. The soundtrack borrows a lot of music from FFVII, which is awesome, while the new tunes are a bit more of a mixed bag. I noticed that most of the least notable original tunes are used in the first part of the game, while most of the new music used in the latter half of the game was fantastic. The music used against Sephiroth being particularly good, heck, most of the 'melancholic' and 'depressing' songs were phenomenal. Voice Acting was incredibly good as well.

 Crisis Core is not a good game. It might be a bit better if you haven't played Final Fantasy VII yet, so that the recycled scenes don't feel like a poor attempt to leech of Final Fantasy VII's nostalgia and the new characters don't feel as inconsequential as they do, plus, you can't really compare these rip-offs, Genesis and Hollander, to the originals! Still, even if the story wasn't as bad as it is, the game just can't pull its own weight. The reels were a terrible idea, the optional missions are dull and poorly spread throughout the game and the battles aren't very fun. If you like Final Fantasy VII, stay away.
 4.0 out of 10.