Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII

Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII is an action role-playing game developed and published by Square Enix for the PlayStation Portable.

Plot
Crisis Core begins seven years before the events of Final Fantasy VII, and many characters from that game and other related works appear. However, the primary characters in the game are from either SOLDIER (the private army of Shinra), or from their elite branch of operatives, the Turks.

Why It Rocks

 * 1) It is a prequel to Final Fantasy VII, exploring some of the events that occurred before the events of that game, along with exploring the story over the main protagonist, Zack Fair.
 * 2) The game is both an action and turn-based RPG, with a stream of fast turns creating the illusion of real-time combat.
 * 3) Just like the Kingdom Hearts series, the player chooses actions from a menu, featuring attack, magic, special attack, and item choices.
 * 4) Mission based gameplay.
 * 5) Up to 300 optional missions.
 * 6) Many characters from the original game appear in this game.
 * 7) Certain combinations of characters and numbers in modulating phase will allow the player to level up Zack, power up Materia, or perform special moves and summons.
 * 8) The game's key feature is the Digital Mind Wave (DMW): a slot machine-like screen in the upper left-hand corner. Images and numbers continuously scroll in each of the three slots and combinations of sevens lead to special status effects.
 * 9) The player can choose whether to follow the game's story, which can be completed in around 15 hours of gameplay, or to complete missions, leading to around 50 hours of gameplay for a 100% completion.
 * 10) The shops are entered via the main menu, which makes the game easier.
 * 11) Balanced difficulty.
 * 12) The game features new and original soundtrack, as well as remixed and remastered musical scores from the original game.
 * 13) One Winged Angel (which is considered Final Fantasy 's best musical score) was remade..
 * 14) The game features some of the best graphics and cinematics seen on the PSP.
 * 15) Excellent story and Zack's character development is one of the best highlights in the game.
 * 16) Cheesy but entertaining dialogue as seen in many Square Enix games.
 * 17) The ending is by far to be considered one of the saddest moments in the series even more so than in the original Final Fantasy VII.

Bad Qualities

 * 1) It is fairly short.
 * 2) Unskippable cutscenes which can hurt replay value.

Reception
In contrast to the rest of the Complication of Final Fantasy VII, which received mostly mixed-to-negative reviews (with the exception of Before Crisis), Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII was well-received by fans, gamers, and critics alike, who praised its high-quality graphics, intriguing storyline, substantial gameplay, and high production values. It is widely regarded as the best entry in the Complication and one of the best PSP games ever created. It was also a commercial success, selling 3.1 million copies worldwide as of March 31, 2009, with 830,000 sold in Japan alone.