Just to rip the band-aid off here I really don’t think this game would have much of a legacy at all if it weren’t for the admittedly well executed ending.
The gameplay is generally pretty fun but is not exactly the best thought out at points, there’s a lot more randomness than I would like and some mechanics are flat out useless (SP). I appreciate the reworking of the Materia system though and I imagine that going after all the missions would encourage you to engage with those mechanics on an appropriately deep level.
The game is very clearly a relic of the PSP era, but honestly? Nothing wrong with that! If anything playing this just made me miss when there was a dedicated space for weird experimental spin-off titles like this designed around short but fun play sessions rather than constantly chasing immersion to rope you in for multi-hour play sessions. Definitely enjoyed my time playing this even if it wasn’t blowing me away in any capacity.
Story-wise…. man. This is really rough. I will say they won me over on Zack, even with his awful recasting I understand why he’s such a beloved character now. But everything surrounding him is, without mincing words, pretty bad. Playing this served as such a stark reminder of how bad the Compilation of FFVII idea was, there is such a strong disconnect between the tone, themes, and writing style of the original game and Crisis Core. That’s not to say that a spin-off shouldn’t have its own distinct identity, but it just feels like the writers room here had never played the original game.
On top of confusing and ridiculous Nomura-isms in both plot and dialogue, I just didn’t buy the connections between Zack and anyone else. Zack and Aerith like each other because the plot demands it. Zack and Cloud are friends because the plot demands it. There is absolutely no understanding of what made any of these characters compelling originally and they come off as caricatures of themselves.
The Nibelheim incident is expectedly reconstructed here, but feels hastily shoved in last minute because they suddenly remembered they had to, they even shoved in an original character for seemingly no reason. Even the ending, as praised as it is, is dramatized to the point of completely undermining the chilling brevity of the same scene as shown in the original game. These direct connections to the original come off as forced, and I honestly would’ve rather they just told an original side story about Zack that predated all of that entirely.
But the original stuff here sucks too!! The original characters weren’t compelling in the slightest to me, and the plot they followed felt like an absurd fanfiction. I mentioned the dialogue earlier but it’s especially bad here, there’s so many unintentionally hilarious moments that are only made worse by Zack’s awful voice actor.
What could’ve been a simple but fun handheld footnote to FFVII’s legacy ended up being just another example of why the Compilation of FFVII was such a big mistake from the start. The original game never needed any of this expansion, and to this day it’s still best enjoyed while completely ignoring all supplemental material. If anything it made me appreciate Remake even more for nailing the tone and representation of the world/characters, despite all the fate ghost stuff.
I know I’m in the minority here as most fans seem to really enjoy this one but I just can’t connect with the story on any level and it drags the whole package down for me.
The gameplay is generally pretty fun but is not exactly the best thought out at points, there’s a lot more randomness than I would like and some mechanics are flat out useless (SP). I appreciate the reworking of the Materia system though and I imagine that going after all the missions would encourage you to engage with those mechanics on an appropriately deep level.
The game is very clearly a relic of the PSP era, but honestly? Nothing wrong with that! If anything playing this just made me miss when there was a dedicated space for weird experimental spin-off titles like this designed around short but fun play sessions rather than constantly chasing immersion to rope you in for multi-hour play sessions. Definitely enjoyed my time playing this even if it wasn’t blowing me away in any capacity.
Story-wise…. man. This is really rough. I will say they won me over on Zack, even with his awful recasting I understand why he’s such a beloved character now. But everything surrounding him is, without mincing words, pretty bad. Playing this served as such a stark reminder of how bad the Compilation of FFVII idea was, there is such a strong disconnect between the tone, themes, and writing style of the original game and Crisis Core. That’s not to say that a spin-off shouldn’t have its own distinct identity, but it just feels like the writers room here had never played the original game.
On top of confusing and ridiculous Nomura-isms in both plot and dialogue, I just didn’t buy the connections between Zack and anyone else. Zack and Aerith like each other because the plot demands it. Zack and Cloud are friends because the plot demands it. There is absolutely no understanding of what made any of these characters compelling originally and they come off as caricatures of themselves.
The Nibelheim incident is expectedly reconstructed here, but feels hastily shoved in last minute because they suddenly remembered they had to, they even shoved in an original character for seemingly no reason. Even the ending, as praised as it is, is dramatized to the point of completely undermining the chilling brevity of the same scene as shown in the original game. These direct connections to the original come off as forced, and I honestly would’ve rather they just told an original side story about Zack that predated all of that entirely.
But the original stuff here sucks too!! The original characters weren’t compelling in the slightest to me, and the plot they followed felt like an absurd fanfiction. I mentioned the dialogue earlier but it’s especially bad here, there’s so many unintentionally hilarious moments that are only made worse by Zack’s awful voice actor.
What could’ve been a simple but fun handheld footnote to FFVII’s legacy ended up being just another example of why the Compilation of FFVII was such a big mistake from the start. The original game never needed any of this expansion, and to this day it’s still best enjoyed while completely ignoring all supplemental material. If anything it made me appreciate Remake even more for nailing the tone and representation of the world/characters, despite all the fate ghost stuff.
I know I’m in the minority here as most fans seem to really enjoy this one but I just can’t connect with the story on any level and it drags the whole package down for me.