Crisis Core

FF7 Crisis Core is a great looking game. It’s also definitely only for preexisting FF7 fans as the primary reason to play it is to fill in the storyline. 

The combat isn’t quite as button mashy as I had been lead to believe, but it’s conceivable that you could get through it by just pressing one button repeatedly. Though you might have to put various cure spells on the next bar over and slip over and cast them periodically. The slot machine isn’t quite as random as it seems.

The main thing that annoys me though is the missions. The main storyline is extremely short (I’m 17 hours in with 35% of the optional missions done, and am to the last step before you can’t go back to midgar. I think that means less than 3 hours of actual storyline play left.) 

The missions are there to fill in the slack, but they don’t really do it all that well. There’s tiny bits of storyline in the missions, and you get levels and bonus items for completing them, but mostly there’s about 7-8 maps with different treasure chests scattered about and certain areas blocked off. The same 7-8 maps… for every mission…

I really want to finish the game, but I think I’m getting into a Chalain-esqe dilemma. If I go ahead and finish the main storyline, I’m going to sell the game back or give it to my brother without completing the missions… But if I keep working on the missions, I may never actually go complete the game! I’ve already delayed 2 weeks, not touching the game at all because all there was to work on without biting the bullet and going past the point of no return in the storyline is missions. And the missions are just so dreary. 

I have discovered a way to make them go faster though. You only encounter enemies in the large rooms, I suspect something to do with the camera. If you walk very close to the walls in the big rooms, you rarely get into a random battle. This saves a couple minutes on each mission…