Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII

[Boo the Gentleman Caller]

Hey all,

So as most of you know, as a full-time father and overworked corporate drone, I have little time for video games. Most of the time I play on the go via my 3DS or PSP (with emulator). Over the past few months I have slowly meandered my way through Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII for the second time. Suffice to say, I was... underwhelmed this time around.

The graphics were good for 2008 PSP (roughly on par with the PS2-era), the gameplay was good, and it build a new amount of lore around Shinra and the entire world of FFVII. I love the characters: Zack, Aerith, Angeal, etc. It really made me fall in love with the character of Zack Fair.

But oh man am I feeling disappointed. Here are my complaints:
-The game covers a period of over 7 years and does little to nothing to help articulate this.
-Zack has a bunch of random NPC buddies in SOLDIER that email him through the game, but in the end, none of them had a one-on-one face time. I suppose they were to make it appear he was liked by his peers, but in reality, I felt like neither myself nor Zack cared about them in the slightest.
-The addition of Angeal and Genesis as 1st class SOLDIER on par with Sephiroth... I don't mind this, but the play off it all was just... blargh. Angeal was supposed to be wise and mentor-ish, but came across as broody and silly.
-Likewise, Genesis was overly-theatric and was sort of grating. The fact that Dirge of Cerberus and Crisis Core go a long way to insert Genesis into lore and provided a path for him in future, post-Crisis Core content was just silly.
-Plus, we're supposed to believe Sephiroth, Genesis, and Angeal were best friends?! Sephiroth literally feels pigeonholed into this story for the sake of "oh, it's Sephiroth!"
-The whole plot regarding Project G and degradation was confusing and all over the place. One moment tons of Genesis clones are popping up, the next moment Genesis is dead, the next other characters (ie, Lazard) are defecting from Shinra off-screen for literally no reason. The plot was a hot mess overall. This is probably my biggest gripe.
-Then you have Cloud and Zack being captured and experimented on by Hojo, which was literally for no reason that I could fathom. Was it because they were there when Jenova's remains were stolen by Sephiroth? Was this explained in FFVII and I forgot?
-During the four years Zack was under, where was Genesis and what was he doing? He was all gung-ho about attacking Shinra up to this point, so he just took a four-year break after Zack disappeared? What's up with that?

I am also re-playing FFVII for the first time in about 12 or 13 years. Cloud is such an a-hole at the beginning of FFVII. It's sort of surprising by how selfish and unlikeable he is at first. I'm trying to figure out why he is that way; in Crisis Core, young Cloud is such a nice guy, and his best friend Zack is equally nice and all about being a hero to everyone and anyone. If Cloud absorbed aspects of Zack's history and personality due to the mako poisoning and experimentation, you'd think he would also inherit those aspects of Zack's personality. Instead the post-experimented Cloud is a selfish dude. Maybe this is because Shinra killed Zack and he just wants to stick it to Shinra in any way possible?

Like, I am so frustrated by this entire experience with Crisis Core that I have been jotting down a summary re-write of how much better this game could be. It will be short and sweet, but dude, I have to get this out of my system. I'll be posting here my thoughts.

[Kodokami]

This is one of those games I never got around to playing, but briefly read plot summaries of. Kinda glad I didn't now, haha. Sometimes I think games should be left standalone without sequels/prequels to muddy it up (Kingdom Hearts...).

What was up with Genesis, by the way? I know he shows up in, like, the last 10 seconds of Dirge of Cerberus for no reason, and that plot has been hanging ever since. He and Angeal were basically the same kind of super soldier as Sephiroth, right? Man, it's been so long since I've played VII I'm not even sure what Sephiroth is.

[Boo the Gentleman Caller]

So the general concept is that there were two projects designed to create super SOLDIERs from Jenova cells. Project S and Project G.

Professor Hojo worked on Project S, which was the more successful project and resulted in Sephiroth. The end result of this project is also that Sephiroth/Jenova can impart their will on others with Jenova cells, resulting in the Reunion Theory (which essentially makes Cloud and all the other Project S candidates with Jenova cells within them all head to the Northern Crater during FFVII). This was the focus of Final Fantasy VII.

Meanwhile, another Shinra scientist, Dr. Hollander, worked on Project G, which was ultimately deemed a failure. Both Genesis and Angeal were the end results for this project. These soldiers were created not by injected fetuses with direct Jenova cells, but rather by infecting another host, and then the hosts cells (now infused with Jenova cells) are used to create these SOLDIERs. These soldiers were as strong as Sephiroth, but ultimately started to "degrade" and deteriorate overtime, eventually leading to their death. A side-effect of these "G-SOLDIERs", however, is that they can infect others with their cells, eventually turning the infectees into clones.

So essentially, the idea is that Genesis realizes that he is a product of genetic manipulation, spazzes out and leaves Shinra, taking a bunch of other SOLDIERs with him. He infects all of these SOLDIERs, who become an army of his clones, and they all try to take their revenge on Shinra.

Eventually, Genesis learns about Project S and tells Sephiroth, which sets about the events leading to Sephiroth's madness (and the destruction of Nibelheim). It's a minor retcon.

Genesis is an antagonist, but he doesn't desire to destroy or be evil. He moreso wants to be cured, live his life, and "protect the planet" -- which is sort of vague.

In the end, Zack defeats but doesn't kill Genesis. Genesis' comatose body is then taken by a rogue group of former-SOLDIER known as Deepguard (which is the main enemy of Dirge of Cerberus), who plan to recruit him into their organization but fail. The secret ending to Dirge of Cerberus has Genesis awaken, finally cured from his degradation (apparently by the planet itself, which happens offscreen) and he returns to the world to protect it.

Sort of stupid, to be honest. Hahaha...

[V_Translanka]

No complaints about the battle system? That always looked like one of the lamest aspects from what I recall looking up Crisis Core back in the day...Personally I never liked Clod. He always seemed like a bumbling idiot who was regularly 3-steps behind. Even amnesia (aka lame soap opera garbage) doesn't make up for that much. No redeemable qualities.

Of the entirety of VII I liked AC mostly because it showed how epic FF fight scenes could be and it made me want the same treatment for VI...but then the game sequel/prequels came out and I was like...>_>

[Mauron]

I thought this was one of those games I had bought but never played, but I was thinking of Dirge of Cerberus.