Not what i wanted, but good nonetheless.
As a FFVII nut, it's hard not to constantly think of how the character you are playing can never be as powerful as either Sephiroth or Cloud - because as we know he was easily killed by Sehpiroth in FFVII - and Cloud put his boot up Sephiroth's skinny booty in the same game. But it's still a woderfully made game - I wish Kingdom Hearts 2 would have followed this format, instead of the broken game design they made for that game...
All of the favorites we remember from the past are here - including the summons monsters (ancients). Most appreciated is the materia system (yay!) which was my all time favorite right there with the job system from FFV. You have to adjust to the fighting commands, I concstantly have to remember that the triggers change the attack commands - not the d-pad like in most games, but that's easy to get over. Movement can be a little choppy sometimes, and it seems like Zack can run a little faster than they made him run - but it's no game-breaker.
The music is good, reminiscent of the original title. Sound effects are cool, but his voice is a little nerdy. Some of the things he says while fighting are a bit on the nerd sioe too, but hey, it isn't anything that will stop me from playing.
Combat is not 100%, while still fun. I wish they would have let you target an enemy without having to run around until it is targeted. (Could have used the D-Pad for that). There is no target lock, which would have been helpful - especially when trying to steal from a specific enemy, or focusing on an enemy you want to demolish.
I like the misions the most, and I especially like the fact that they tell you how hard they are relative to your level. I have finished about 29% of the missions and about 10% of the story - I'm a mission freak! There seems to be a plethora of missions, and something nice to do is to plod through them when you just want some quick action without advancing into the storyline.
The materia system is back, and with it the ability to create "new" Materia. This is also a welcome addition (revisit). As I stated before, this was my favorite system and I am happy to be able to use it again. On the down side, it seems you can only make Materia - too bad you cannot make items (or augment them) as well - but it's still cool. I still feel it could have more item slots - but we are early yet.
On the down side - I wish this wasn't just for the small screen. Couldn't the same resources have been put into making a full console game? I am also still bothered that they chose an Action-RPG platform instead of a party-based, despite the fact that the game is still excellent. I guess I'll never be satisfied until I see a full blown Advent Children Type sequel to this most venerable of RPG's. But in the meantime, Crisis Core is enjoyable still.