Game Diary: The "I’m still addicted to Crisis Core" Edition
Crisis Core’s compelling yet mostly-known tale is nearly at an end, and I’m still just as enamored with the game as when I started. In my eyes, this is the mark of a truly great game — it crosses the dividing road between “good” and “amazing,” a road paved with the soulless game cases of many an “almost, but not quite.” In order to cross such an insurmountable divide, a game must pay attention to every little detail — an area in which Crisis Core excels. Whether it’s the initially simplistic materia fusion system or the way Zack plucks an umbrella from a sandy beach to use as a makeshift buster sword, Crisis Core never stops surprising you with imaginative ideas, both large and small. This veritable onslaught of creativity, then, keeps the player chomping at the bit to see what’s next. Truth be told, Crisis Core has brought me closer to understanding the equine mentality than any scientific study — the game revels in carrot-on-a-stick incentives, and I gleefully gallop in its wake.
It’s not perfect, however; nits run rampant, and I aim to pick them. Nit number one requires tweezers, as it’s smaller than its brethren — an outcast of sorts, with nary a glowing red nose to be found. At one point in the later stages of the game, Zack is essentially asked whether he prefers the Turks’ petite brunette, Cissnei, or everyone’s favorite soon-to-be martyr, Aerith*. Now, regardless of who you choose, Zack’s only going to have eyes for Aerith, but what if that minute choice impacted the game’s storyline? What if, in a game like Crisis Core — a prequel with a plot that’s already been elaborated upon numerous times — you could completely alter the story? Really, it’s perfect for Crisis Core; Zack (SPOILER) dies at the end of the game, and thus, peoples’ perceptions of him are all that remain in the Final Fantasy VII universe. Maybe he wasn’t as close to Aerith as people think. Crisis Core and prequels of its ilk tend to serve as fanservice with a side of plot development. Why not elevate such prequels to a new level — one that really makes players reconsider things they once understood to be fact in their favorite video game worlds?
The second nit is definitely larger, featuring the nit’s characteristic — well, what do nits look like? Anyway, after Zack, Tseng, and Cloud’s helicopter is hit by an off-screen missile, they crash in a permafrost, snow lightly falling around them. After shrugging off what should’ve been lethal wounds, Zack and co. happen upon a fortuitously-placed enemy fort. Bearing in mind that he is, at this point, a demi-god of sorts, and can fell normal soldiers with a glance from his mako-enfused eyes (that sadly, don’t fire lasers), Zack does the sensible thing and engages in Solid Snake style enemy-avoidance tactics. Wait, what? Yep, Square Enix decided to add Crisis Core to the ranks of clandestine greats like The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker and, actually, Final Fantasy VII. Their excuse: enemy soldiers are collecting items from chests scattered around their own base, but only if they catch you. So, every time a soldier — one who’s significantly weaker than Zack — catches up with our hero, Zack is unceremoniously hurled out of the fort and pursued by three enemies. After blinking, Zack is then able to re-enter the fort and try again, but with the disheartening realization that a chest is gone! Why can’t Zack just beat up the guys who stole their own stuff? Who knows? But here’s the best part: after getting caught for the umpteenbajillionth time, Zack is able to continue because all of the soldiers are rotting in the ground. So, what happened to the sticky-fingered soldiers who partook of the chests? Dead, I’m guessing. Why can’t Zack steal the stuff from them now? Too GTA for his tastes? Developers: random stealth is bad stealth. It doesn’t divy up gameplay sections; it just pisses me, and legions of like-minded individuals, off.
The final nit resembles a small mammal more than it does a nit; it’s not a problem Crisis Core possesses so much as it is an idea. Crisis Core has an engaging battle system that incorporates action elements while retaining the core of an RPG. More so than other such action-RPGs, however, Crisis Core creates an illusion of true action — far removed from the watered-down, overtly turn-based battles that are so prominent in the sub-genre. Meanwhile, in lands mysterious and unknown to Crisis Core, MMORPGs are struggling to move beyond turn-based battle systems while maintaining some semblance of fun. A few have succeeded, but they sold their swords and sorcery to the devil in exchange for decent battle systems; games like Auto Assault don’t even utilize humanoid characters at all. At this point, I imagine you can see where I’m going; let’s relentlessly petition Square Enix to create an MMORPG based around Crisis Core’s battle system. Can you imagine it? You’re running through an open field, dodging and rolling while hacking away at a large monster with a sword the size of a larger monster. Don’t get ahead of yourself, though; this isn’t Monster Hunter. With a roll of the DMW (Crisis Core’s back-end that, well, it’s a slot machine), you have temporary infinite MP — Hell Thundaga, go! And PVP would still work because everyone would have access to the DMV. And if Square were to slap the Final Fantasy VII name on this little slice of brilliance, it’d be sure to succeed — even amongst Japan’s MMO-less heathens.
Vahn16 was about to craft an excellent conclusion to this rambling post, but he was accosted by a number of ants and dragged under the nearest refrigerator. He didn’t fight back because he was positive they were nits, and, therefore, harmless.
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*At another point, Kunsel asks Zack why he looks so down. Zack can respond in one of two ways: “I’m gonna be away from Aerith for a long time” or “…I love you, man!” I like the Aerith vs. Cissnei example better, though, for obvious reasons. Plus, I’m sure fan fiction writers have already taken care of Zack and Kunsel’s budding romance.
Gaming Diary: "I was doing it before Stephen Totilo" Edition
Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: Ring of Fates
Finally, I’ve started this game after owning it for nearly a week. It’s not a normal plot-heavy, pretty-boy filled Final Fantasy, but instead opts for a light plot about normal children. Nope, no outlandish hairstyles here.
Well, this was the situation I was presented with about five seconds into the game. The children were being taught how to heft a blade by their father. So far as I could tell, this “rite of passage” was actually a thinly-veiled attempt on the father’s part to rid himself of a reviled chore (chopping the firewood), but I’m not here to judge.
After the children were unable to make the blade so much as budge, two more characters showed up; they had names, but I’m fairly sure they were actually Yachiru from Bleach and a new type of Heartless from the hypothetical Kingdom Hearts III. They began talking about magic and I began wondering if Ichigo could take Ansem in a fight. Once they finished talking, the children lifted the blade through teamwork; this, of course, was an allegory for the multiplayer aspect of the game — it’s Square’s way of saying, “Please try playing multiplayer. The bucket’s gone. We promise.” And if that doesn’t work, they force you to notice multiplayer through your total inability to pause in single-player. Urgh.
Yes, I’m fairly sure this is exactly how it happened.
With blade in hand, the young boy (of the brother-sister duo) ran away to Danger Cave while his sister suggested that adventure is dangerous. Japanese cultural undertones? Well, let’s put it this way: that girl is cruisin’ for a kidnappin’. Inside the cave, the boy was greeted by a moogle. The moogle’s entrance was punctuated with a giant crash — right through the fourth wall. He delved into the basics of the game’s controls and asked repeatedly if I’d like hear them again. Oddly enough, I was unable to perform attacks myself when the moogle was teaching me. And no, I don’t suck; I mean I was physically unable to perform them. Instead, my character just did them himself while I, in my total powerlessness, looked on.
Once I took back the reigns, things went smoothly. Interestingly (at least as far as hack ‘n’ slash RPGs go) I was able to jump onto enemies’ heads and box them around the ears — by which I mean stomp on them. While playing Halo I’ve always taken great pleasure in doing head-stands, in spite of the fact that they don’t do any damage. But for some reason, now that they’re useful in FFCC, the childlike joy just isn’t there anymore.
For the most part, Danger Cave was empty. Sure, angry animals appeared and scratched at my character in a fruitless attempt to reclaim their home, but the cave’s original inhabitants were long gone. I soon discovered why: Those cave-dwellers were fairly advanced all right — they even had their own transportation system. But in their race towards technological superiority, they hamstrung themselves. Put simply, their train tracks were a bust. There was not a train to be found — only blocks. If only they could’ve known the error of their ways! But hey, at least it provided me with a quick block-pushing brain-teaser.
The cave’s final room presented me with a real challenge: a Transformer. As soon as I approached what appeared to be an innocuous coffin, it morphed into a robot scorpion. “Have no fear,” my character quipped, “its pointy, giant tail is its weak point!” I’d hate to see what’d happen if this child tried to subdue a real scorpion. Against all odds, however, I prevailed, and my character decided it was time to call it a night.
Metric Snarkton of sarcasm aside, I’m liking this game pretty well so far. It’s technically sound — even beautiful in some areas — and mechanically enjoyable. I doubt the story will hook me, but for once, that’s not why I’m playing a Final Fantasy game*.
*FF XII and FF: Tactics fall under this category as well, but that’s neither here nor there.
