Crisis Core Research Thread

yeah, that was mine.

After correcting typos and talking to hito, the page has been updated further and is now included in our Crisis Core Content Page, under OTHER. I'm so happy we are hosting these translations again! Thank you hito!

Shademp said:

It mentioned that Nomura could not imagine Zack in a red SOLDIER outfit (which, honestly, I don't want to imagine either).

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Having watched through the full Crisis Core "movie" now, I have some reactions and observations.


- Saw people talking about this on an emulator forum and observed it now while watching the movie: Some of the normal cutscenes are pre-rendered. For this reason, they will be of low quality and pixelated compared to the upscaled models and textures in the live-rendered scenes. FMVs are naturally prerendered, but DMW scenes and flashbacks also fall in this category. The impossibility of doing little more than a primitive upscaling of the prerendered scenes is one big reason for wanting an official HD release of Crisis Core.

I wrote down the scenes that were clearly prerendered:

• Zack fighting Sephiroth hologram (Chapter 1)

• Sephiroth's and Zack's phone conversation, before heading to Mako Reactor.

• Flashback where Sephiroth is denied donating blood to Genesis.

• Genesis threatening Hojo, all up to Zack's battle against Bahamut Fury.

• Angeal's death scene + all remaining scenes of that chapter.

• Photo montage when climbing up Mt. Nibel.

• When Zack flies out of the Jenova chamber. Yes, only that short bit. It's odd.

• Zack's dream sequence inside the mako pod, when he sees Angeal.

• Gongaga scene with Zack, Genesis and Hollander.

• Zack defeating Genesis, Genesis walking to the statue.

• Lazard's death and the apple scene. The scene where Genesis gets picked up by Weiss and Nero is not pre-rendered.

• Cissnei boarding a helicopter to look for Zack, Zack and Cloud on the truck.

I wonder if these prerendered scenes exist as files that can be turned into video...


- "Wings symbolize freedom for those who have none". Thank you Cissnei for telling us the intended symbolism of the story.


- Another consequence of the incredibly high, emulated quality is that you can see when the characters' mouths aren't moving even though they are talking. Most of these instances would be incredibly hard to spot on a PSP screen. Listed many of these moments from the movie upload (but not all of them) :

1:09:50 - Tseng and Zack
1:11:30 - Tseng
1:20:09 - Zack
1:36:15 - Zack
1:37:00 - Sephiroth
1:39:29 - Tseng
1:40:02 - Zack
1:53:00 - Zack
2:01:10 - Zack
2:14:13 - Zack (though it could be just his internal monologue)
2:15:25 - Cissnei
2:32:07 - Lazard "Angeal"
2:32:44 - Zack
2:33:12 - Lazard "Angeal"
2:35:30 - Zack (When Zack says "Loveless again" to Genesis: I had already observed this one long ago, actually)
2:35:53 - Genesis
2:36:40 - Genesis & Zack
2:40:09 - Genesis

To add mouth animations where there currently are none would be another important goal in an official HD version of Crisis Core.



- A few interesting choices RandomBlackGamer did when editing together this movie. When Zack says "Me? Gongaga." he uses the FMV flashback of this scene, from the game's ending. Additionally, all the Zack flashbacks from ACC are implemented in their proper places (including the scene when Zack and Cloud get shot at while on the truck, which I thought was kind of cool). Also in the zoom in on Jenova's pod, the flashback FMV is used.


- Angeal gives Zack a scar before their battle. But in Angeal's death scene, there is no sign of Zack's wound. One could argue that he stopped bleeding.

- The Costa del Sol ocean in HD looks AMAZING.

- Didn't notice before that a Gelnika model is present on the Junon airport. It blends in with the background a lot.

- Never appreciated before just how good the Cosmo Canyon looks in the background.

- Misspelled sign. "Mibelheim". Sign seen again when Genesis is talking.

- I really like the Gongaga reactor ruins in the background.

- Annoying editing choices with the sound after Zack dies. A different performance of Why is played. Sounds like a live performance, but voice actor lines are there so it must be from some FF themed concert. Low sound quality. EDIT: The uploader was forced to use this live performance version, due to being hit with copyright claims when he used the game's version.

After a moderately tedious journey, I now have ISOs for Japanese and European English (PAL) Crisis Core. Getting PPSSPP to work was easy, but the path to getting my PSP hacked and being able to copy game ISOs wasn't entirely straightforward. The "installing 6.60 firmware for dummies" guide was incomplete and/or linked to some version of the files that did not work for me. Using the files linked to from here worked much better. Slowly I am catching up to people who are used to emulation and unpacking the Crisis Core files. =)

The internal/native resolution of Crisis Core *seems* to be 480x272. That is the window size and resolution when the window is not stretched, at least. Being able to finally take snapshots is AWESOME. The size of the snapshots will be whatever the window size is set to be.

Great configuration options on the PPSSPP. Still need to find the option though so that the emulator doesn't spell out "Snapshot taken to folder/folderx" etc. Because of this text appearing, you will take a picture of the folder directory text if you take snapshots in quick succession.

*to view the images below side-by-side, open this post in a separate window*

The word you're looking for is check-mark

Also, I was surprised to see that the Japanese version of the save point has the word in English, but the English version just has the pretty design thing.

They've always been inconsistent with the Shinra/Shin-Ra thing. I guess it comes down to translating the two kanji that make it up.

Shademp said:

- Never appreciated before just how good the Cosmo Canyon looks in the background.

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What the? I have never noticed that before, what the hell.

...Really? I was giddy during that scene for that reason I did forget just how good it looks.

Yeah, I don't think I ever noticed it either.

The PSP screen isn't that big guys

what y'all nerds doing look at the background and not zack's sweet ass

I'm glad someone brought up Cosmo being right there by the fucking highway. Does it mess with anyone else's image of this world and Cosmo Canyon in particular that it's just right there and not out in the middle of nowhere like a proper hippy commune?

And what about there being a sign for Nibelheim's exit ramp? What, it merits a sign off a major highway, but no one notices when it burns down and gets rebuilt with some variations and with all the people different?

I hate to whine about the Compilation some more, but, damn, they really lost the feel of the original. The disconnected feel of the world was part of that.

^^Really? I'd always imagined there being roads and stuff that Cloud and Co. was traveling on, or at least, referring too. Just with the World Map being so low-res as it is (and it being 1997) there's no way of showing that in game.

With there being a whole monster population and everything, I kinda assumed that one of the things Shin-Ra would be invested in is keeping a relatively decent road network intact if just to give their employees a "the nearest town is here in case (when) you get attacked by monsters" reference. I mean, Corel has that huge rail-road network, I don't see why there wouldn't be something smaller to/from other villages. You kinda need a reliable way to transport stuff to fund a mega-corp after all.

The Twilight Mexican said:

I hate to whine about the Compilation some more...

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I don't buy that for a second

I always figured that was just a bridge over the river between the Nibel and Cosmo areas, not part of a major highway. Secondly, the village of Cosmo Canyon is pretty high up there, it might not be as close as it appears.

Lastly, assuming you've driven around on the US' highway network, even a highway you drive regularly, how many exits do you really know anything about? There's a stretch of Route 30 that I drove at least once a week and often more for most of my life. After checking with the website, there are no fewer than 11 exits between my hometown and where I was going. I couldn't tell you a damn thing about half of those exits. Where they lead, whether it's a town or just a road, if there's anything of note there, anything. No idea. Indeed, without a news report, if one of those towns burned to the ground I would be none the wiser. Nibelheim having an exit does not identify it as a major city.

You guys are talking sensibly. I can see that. That said, the original game goes too far out of its way to show us that the world outside Midgar and Junon is a wild frontier kind of place.

Obsidian, you spoke of Corel. Even with that railroad network in place, the original Corel village had no other obvious infrastructure leading into it. The Gold Saucer that later sits in its place is -- despite being an obvious money pit -- accessed through a literal junk heap.

The river between Cosmo and Nibelheim, Force? Why was a special car needed from Dio to effectively travel across the Corel continent? Why is a man driving a chocobo-drawn carriage the best help you can get in the desert? Why does every town on that continent have dirt roads? Why does the game make a point to tell us only one person in Nibelheim even had an automobile? Why did Sephiroth and co. have to ride through bumpy terrain that caused motion sickness for Cloud in order to get there? Why was the team stuck until the dude at Cosmo fixed the buggy? Where were these bridges then? The game is -- if not blatantly telling us -- then at least implicitly showing us that easy travel has never been established between cities and towns in this world.

In light of world building like this, yeah, something like that bridge does strike me as a major highway and as absurdly out of place.

Hell, even on the Midgar continent, travel by chocobo is apparently the way to go. There are no roads leading into or out of Midgar. To get back to that (biggest) city (in the world), Zack and Cloud had to hitch a ride on a truck through wasteland.

Graphics limitations. Gameplay boundaries. Whatever the technical reasons one might cite, whether accurate or no, a different kind of world was presented to us. That's my take anyway.

The Twilight Mexican said:

You guys are talking sensibly. I can see that. That said, the original game goes too far out of its way to show us that the world outside Midgar and Junon is a wild frontier kind of place.

Obsidian, you spoke of Corel. Even with that railroad network in place, the original Corel village had no other obvious infrastructure leading into it. The Gold Saucer that later sits in its place is -- despite being an obvious money pit -- accessed through a literal junk heap.

The river between Cosmo and Nibelheim, Force? Why was a special car needed from Dio to effectively travel across the Corel continent? Why is a man driving a chocobo-drawn carriage the best help you can get in the desert? Why does every town on that continent have dirt roads? Why does the game make a point to tell us only one person in Nibelheim even had an automobile? Why did Sephiroth and co. have to ride through bumpy terrain that caused motion sickness for Cloud in order to get there? Why was the team stuck until the dude at Cosmo fixed the buggy? Where were these bridges then? The game is -- if not blatantly telling us -- then at least implicitly showing us that easy travel has never been established between cities and towns in this world.

In light of world building like this, yeah, something like that bridge does strike me as a major highway and as absurdly out of place.

Hell, even on the Midgar continent, travel by chocobo is apparently the way to go. There are no roads leading into or out of Midgar. To get back to that (biggest) city (in the world), Zack and Cloud had to hitch a ride on a truck through wasteland.

Graphics limitations. Gameplay boundaries. Whatever the technical reasons one might cite, whether accurate or no, a different kind of world was presented to us. That's my take anyway.

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While I do think Gongaga/Nibel/Cosmo region should be wild frontier, my headcanon is that there are more entrances to the Gold Saucer. Either by helipad or gondolas to villages of no plotimport.

- The file size difference the Japanese and English game: The former is roughly 50 MB bigger than the English one.

- Extracting the ISOs reveal a number of files, but only three are image files that can be opened without any sort of tinkering.




The Game Preview Image is also found, in the exact same size, when checking memory stick data. However they also include this Save File thumbnail.

Playing the English and Japanese game back to back. This way I know exactly what to do in the Japanese game despite not being able to read the symbols, plus I may easier notice any differences.

Yes, I am creating new save files at every turn so that it will be easy to return to any scenario.

One version difference I forgot to mention is that the Confirm and Cancel buttons are reversed.

Japanese: Confirm is O and Cancel is X
English: Confirm is X and Cancel is O

This is a typical difference between Japanese and English games. This was also the case in Dirge of Cerberus.



Chapter 2 thoughts:

- A bomb is mentioned that Angeal supposedly sets. After the battle with the anti-SOLDIER bosses, Angeal says that there are five minutes left to detonation. This is the last we hear about the bomb. Not saying that something important is left out, but I just find that curious.

- When Zack jumps (14:18), it looks like an homage to Vincent's jumping from three occasions. 1 - Jumping up from his coffin in the original game. 2 - Early trailer footage of Vincent jumping in AC. 3 - One or two scenes of Vincent jumping in Kalm.
Maybe that's just me.

- Enjoy these nonsense symbols from Ifrit's summoning. At least I assume they are nonsense. Correct me if I'm wrong.
^No version difference above.

@Twilight Mexican:
The thing for me is that while FFVII has a lot of places we can go, all of those places have something to do with the story (or are so small they don't cost a lot of memory space). It's not like a truly open world game like Daggerfall (Elder Scrolls Game that came before Morrowind) where you can go anywhere that doesn't have to do with the main storyline. So I think we're missing out a lot of towns and other places that should exist, but aren't important to the storyline.

@Shademp:
The symbols from Ifrit's summoning look like they're the high-def versions of the symbols we see in the original FFVII summoning animation.

- I wish Select was the button that led to the map. I keep wanting to dash while not in battle. Speaking of.



- I always found it annoying that the Phoenix Down creates a permanent feather above Zack's head in battle. Dirge of Cerberus did this better by having a phoenix feather/wings symbol in the corner, showing that the Phoenix Down is active.

- The process of being healed during battle through the DMW is very appreciated. It is random and the Modulating Phase does take up some time, but at least it allows for your HP, MP and AP caps to be broken.

- If I put together a Crisis Core movie, I would include the DMW scenes in their proper places. It would break up the pace, but I feel that their inclusion would add something. The DMW scenes are appreciated, but the fact that they don't stack in a library/theatre is really annoying. There should be a theatre AND the option to turn a DMW scene off so you never see it again in battle.

- I really dislike it when the camera doesn't allow you to do a full rotation, which is quite often, because you are too close to a wall. If not for this limitation, looking for treasure would be so much easier.


Writing the reactions down both for my own amusement and so I will easier remember stuff to say when I stream Crisis Core for TLS's next birthday.

You're streaming CC this year??!!?!?!?! So wanna be there.

- The lack of a way to sell or throw away Materia from the beginning is annoying, especially if you are playing a New Game+ save (which I'm not doing right now, but I remember how easily your Materia list maxes out).

The Engineer said:

The symbols from Ifrit's summoning look like they're the high-def versions of the symbols we see in the original FFVII summoning animation.

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I checked the summoning animation in FFVII. It was the same for all summons and included only one symbol, only encased in differently colored circles.


Advent Children has one Summoning Crest (or what should we call it?) for Bahamut Sin, Crisis Core has crests for Ifrit, Bahamut and Bahamut Fury. Looking at all these, I don't find a symbol that clearly matches up with the single symbol from the original game.

View Picture Gallery

You can see how in CC they took the crest from AC, then made it more complex with more circles of text and more concentric circles. The picture from the Bahamut Fury summoning is of low quality because this scene is prerendered for the PSP.

Airling said:

You're streaming CC this year??!!?!?!?! So wanna be there.

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TLS turns 7 years old on September 25th this year. Last year I streamed Dirge of Cerberus and now I aim to stream Crisis Core sometime in September or October. Playing it now, researching and figuring stuff out so I can make the stream as great as possible. What-with the number 7, I think this anniversary should be extra special.

Coincidence. A YouTube channel called "Censored Gaming" uploaded a video about the Minerva statue as recently as two days ago.

Unexpected difference in map boundaries.
Mission 4-1-3. Mission available early on.

JAPANESE:


ENGLISH:


See how the boundary to the west was moved north-northeast. The area that is no longer traversable in the English game did not include any treasure or enemy encounters. That stretch of ground was perfectly pointless, so changing the boundary not to include it makes sense.

I have not meticulously compared all the mission maps I have played through so far. This example simply stood out in my mind because I did not recall such a meaningless stretch existing in the English game. Comparing versions is something I love but don't expect me to place the mission maps side-by-side unless I can extract the maps from the game files and make the comparison process a smooth one.


Random observation: After fleeing from a battle in Mission 4-1-3, Japanese version, to get to the aforementioned area where there is a boundary difference, the aggression circle for the mission boss was larger than normal and I could not bypass without triggering a fight. This was not the case in the English game. Don't know if this is a version difference or a level difference. Japanese Zack was of significantly lower level than English Zack during testing.