Crisis Core and Licensing Issues

[Lex]

Crisis Core is probably my favourite thing to come out of the Compilation tbh. Well not so much the overall story, but Zack and his journey. He was always this kind of mystery character you knew very little about in FFVII and that worked incredibly well for the experience of VII's story and Cloud's journey to rediscover who he is. The references to Zack are subtle and super neat. I accidentally missed Gongaga on my very first playthrough (people forget Gongaga is entirely optional XD) so all I really had was the photograph you see at the Northern Crater and the Mideel Lifestream sequence and I wasn't too clear on what happened until I went back to the Shinra manor (I visited the basement periodically on my first time through the game on each disc, hoping something would happen).

Don't ask me how I managed to miss a town that's right in front of your face on the way to Cosmo Canyon yet managed to get an obscure scene in an area you have no real reason to revisit, I'd have to travel back in time and speak to my 8 year old self to find out.

Anyway the point is: I think less is more when it comes to Zack in FFVII. But the thing is, he's super relevant to the plot (or just Cloud I suppose), so I'm really glad they expanded on his story. It's something I was always curious about. I could have done without Genesis, but I wasn't too bothered by Angeal since origin of the Buster Sword etc.

And I mean did they really need to have a main antagonist for Zack? Did they need to introduce these characters to make the game awesome? I really don't think so. They could have gone with a more VII-faithful approach by having him complete missions for Shinra and maybe slowly realise how corrupt the company is and the final boss could have been that Sephiroth fight that they added in followed by the travelling scene and then the final fight with the soldiers or something. I don't think the absence of those extra characters would have detracted from the experience in any way.

Even with those extra characters though, Dirge is markedly worse. The Crimson squad and just..... ugh. No need. i would kill to go back in time and rewrite the compilation.

 

[JBedford]

Don't ask me how I managed to miss a town that's right in front of your face on the way to Cosmo Canyon

You also go there in the story, Cloud wakes up there after being knocked out at the temple of the ancients.

 

[Lex]

Yeah but I didn't speak to Zack's parents or have Aerith in my party, and tbh that place isn't worth much story wise without both Tifa and Aerith in your party

 

[ForceStealer]

I missed Gongaga in my first playthrough too, actually. And I stumbled upon the Shinra Manor scene well after beating the game and I was just exploring all the locations I could go again on Disc 3 because I was so enamored with the game. And, in subsequent playthroughs, I always do make a point to put Aerith and Tifa in my party for both the fight with the Turks and Gongaga.

I would say On the Way to the Smile is my favorite thing to come out of the Compilation in total, but Crisis Core if we're limiting it to visible media. But it's no secret that I'm in the distinct minority in that I enjoyed all of it, even when I acknowledge flaws.
In that light, I agree that Crisis Core's major missed opportunity was to simply focus on the Wutai War and allow Zack to become slowly disillusioned. Now, there would have to be some stuff after the end of the war because to establish a relationship with Aerith that had to happen after the end of the war.
And even if they still invented Genesis, that would have been easy enough to do it without making him it such a huge presence in the world. They did well to not have Genesis threaten ALL EXISTENCE like AC and DC did, but he was still entirely too visible for us to believe Shinra covered up his existence.

But, you know, I still think we have a tendency to latch onto the Genesis thing and forget some of the stuff it really did get right. It best matched FF7's color-palette out of the Compilation entries. The email system included a lot of great nods - Cloud inviting Zack over to dinner, email notices about the construction progress of Midgar and the references to Rufus and Heidegger. I personally felt they did a decent job of portraying Sephiroth as not-evil but not exactly friendly either. The combat system was not bad at all (although to max everything out it gets rather broken). It did a good job of endearing Zack to you and instilling a sense of dread when you know what's coming. As previously mentioned, the DMW's existence was justified to great effect in the ending. Other little sad things like having Zack get THAT CLOSE to visiting his parents - literally their back yard - only to be chased away when you know how worried his parents are just half a year later. And I have to say, as soon as the credits finished rolling, I wanted to start a playthrough of FF7 IMMEDIATELY.

tl;dr - we could stand to be a little less jaded sometimes, imo. But I know that doesn't mean much coming from the resident apologist.

 

[Lex]

Agreed about the colour palette thing. When I first played Crisis Core I really felt like I was back in the VII world, which is something Dirge failed to do. There were parts of Dirge where I was a little bit like "oh, cool" (the train graveyard and Nibleheim/ parts of the original Shinra Manor specifically) but other than that it felt very alien to me. Particularly Kalm for some reason.

Crisis core... you've got Sector 5 and Niblheim and even the square in Midgar which just feel really faithful. Granted I guess the fact that Dirge is set after the destruction of Midgar somewhat affects this but it was still too far removed from the original feel or setting for me to appreciate the effort it did make.

Even with the establishment of new towns in Crisis Core I felt like they could plausibly be part of VII's world - Modeoheim has similarities in name and slightly in look to Niblheim, Banora with Gongaga etc so none of that bothered me.

Really the only thing I find jarring about CC are the battles. I enjoy them and like how they work re: materia and actions etc., but I'm not a fan of one of the early guitar heavy battle themes and while I love the idea behind the DMW and like how it functions, having it interrupt you when you're trying to go through the motions of a battle isn't always welcome. Especially when you're like "this is the killing bl-MODULATING PHASE *faffs around and finds a matching face* *sometimes plays a lengthy cutscene*----ow". That gets old.

 

[The Twilight Mexican]

Don't know what you guys were smokin' while playing it, but the only thing to look less like the original than CC is AC(C). =P I'd definitely argue that Dirge's colors were a better match. BC too.

 

[Shademp]

The combat system was not bad at all (although to max everything out it gets rather broken).

I find it funny that the fact the combat system becomes so broken makes it feel even more like an FFVII game. Staying true to the FFVII spirit!

4x-Cut anyone?

EDIT: Also Aqualung and Trine.

 

[Lex]

4x-Cut anyone?

Off topic but yes this. The last time I fought emerald weapon I beat him using one command (4x-Cut) just once at the start of the battle. The idea was to see how long my party could stay alive without healing. It turns out having command counter paired with mime and counter attack on all 3 characters is the most broken thing ever. One 4x-Cut at the start of the battle and it was over within a minute.