Move over Cloud, Zack is the real hero.
FF:Crisis Core takes place before the first FF7 game came out. It gives you a great back story on the life of Zack, who you briefly hear and see about in FF7. The game leads right up to FF7, making it a must buy for any FF7 fan that wants the full story.
First off the game looks gorgeous, they really pushed the PSP to it's limits and it shows. The graphics are top notch. Game flows great with your limit breaks, summons, etc. With that being said , the feature that I loved the most was the music. It was simply great. The battle to boss music was just fun to listen to. You don't get as much free roaming as you did in the recent FF games but you do get a cool mission system. That allows you to go off and complete missions for rewards and such. A nice addition to the game to keep it spiced up.
Now to the game play. I personally wish all FF games played like this. It's almost like Kingdom Hearts where you run up to the monsters and attack rather than your turn-based combat. You can cycle through attack - Magic - Items - etc. It also has a dodge and block feature much like God of War. So the combat really puts you into the fray rather then just commanding and sitting back and watching. On top of the gameplay you don't level up like you did in previous FF games. Instead you have a reel system much like a slot machine. Which is shuffling at all times when you match "7's" like 775 or 777 you level your character. Sounds a bit confusing at first. But you get use to it. At the same time the slots also have characters/summons and when they match up you can perform limit breaks or summons. Now you don't really get a choice not too. It just does it. Once again it's a bit odd at first but it mesh's well with the gameplay. Like I said before I personally love this system and hope Square uses it for other FF games.
Just like FF7 you get to equip materia and accessories. And as before you have limited slots for each. But you materia levels up as the slots go. So you'll have you Fire level up when certain order is reached.
Overall I love this game. There's no reason for any FF fan not to buy this game. Even more so if your a huge FF7 fan. It's also great for people looking for a RPG for the PSP and a good one at that. So go out and buy it now!