Crisis Core is the worst kind of prequel: it answers some questions you might've had about Zack, but then proceeds to sink its hooks into things that never needed explaining in FFVII.

Truth be told, we had a pretty decent time with the combat itself: the roulette leads to amazing moments where you can spam your most powerful spells without draining any MP, and the side missions are delightfully bite-sized!

That said, we can't score it any higher than one and a half stars. Yes, the story and writing really is that awful.