Now many of you may be thinking "That Vamp and his PSP games...", well after reading a preview article on IGN on Crisis Core: FF7, I'm quite impressed by what I've heard.
http://psp.ign.com/articles/751/751423p1.html
Taken strictly on technical merits, Crisis Core is the most impressive PSP game I've ever played. In fact, with the PSP's small screen providing an assist, I'd go so far as to say that Crisis Core looks better than most PS2 games out there.
During cinematic scenes, the character models are detailed and fully animated. Battles contain screens with double digit enemies, and giant bosses. All that, and full voice, wihtout any pauses for loading!
The Ifreet boss was particularly impressive. In addition to showing off gorgeous fire effects, with Ifreet himself engulfed in flames as he fights, at one point during the demo, Ifreet cast a full-motion-video based summon spell of his own. The game managed to switch into and out of the full motion video sequence without turning to a blank screen.
Crisis Core seems almost too technically sound to be a PSP game. It also appears to have some of the highest production values yet seen in a portable game. A trailer for the game shown in the Square Enix closed theater space had real time cinematic sequences featuring the likes of Cloud and Aerith, along with quality CG sequences.
Personally, I think all the "Compilation of Final Fantasy VII" products released so far have been second rate. But Crisis Core looks so good that it could turn things around on its own. It all depends, of course, on how compelling a game Square Enix manages to put together in the end. They've waited this long, so let's hope they don't rush things and end up giving us a game worthy of the FFVII name.
It looks like the above image may actually be in real time, something I never expected to see on PSP.
That entire quote talks about nothing but how graphically capable the game is, audio, and load times. It doesn't even get into depth about any settings, how the game starts, the gameplay. It mentions the characters a bit, but where does it talk about things like new Materia? Weapons? What characters you can control? Where? Where I ask you?
It takes place when Cloud, Zack, and Sephiroth were still all fellow soldiers. I'm sure it will have a bunch of new stuff, plus some really cool back story.
I quoted that for a reason: the technical merit of the game, and how the author talks about it likely being the first good FF7 spin-off. You can read the rest of the article for all the other information
