A prequel that is almost as good as the original.
It tells the story of Zack Fair, and his storyline. For those who have played Final Fantasy VII, you'd know Zack as Clouds best friend, and Clouds savior. Lets just say this, the story that is presented in Crisis Core is well written and tells a complex tale. Yet the story is also very moving. The story is more of a inner battle and dealing with friendship and trust. The story even if you are very familiar with Final Fantasy VII has many unexpected twists and turns, and never really has a dull moment, like the game it is based off of. It's not as intense as FFVII, but it is very dramatic, and is very interesting.
It also helps that the characters are some of the most memorable. Zack grows to be a very likable hero, even the added characters that were exclusive to this game, have their own interesting personalities, and the antagonist for this game, Genesis is a pretty compelling villain. Sephiroth is even shown as a good leader with his own thoughts and emotions, and sets the stage for his role in the original FFVII.
The graphics are beautiful. It shows what happens when developers push the system to the limits. This is a PSP game, and every thing is detailed beautifully. All the environments from FFVII that were re-created in this game look beautiful. The CGI is just amazing, featuring Advent-Children style graphics, and even the in game cut scenes are beautiful to look at. Many complained that Dirge of Cerberus's character models were bland, this is not the case here. I'm going to say these graphics are even superior to DOC's, and the level design just works, well.
The music rocks, seriously. It is remixed from old songs from FFVII, with their own songs. Sure not all are winners, but most of them are great. This is one of the games that I own the soundtrack, it's that good. The voice acting is also great, each character having their own great voice actor, which seems perfect for the role. The sound effects are great as well, yet some feel recycled from FFVII, the rest are very well updated.
The combat, this is a very fun combat system. It's in real time, similar to the star ocean games. Pretty much you have an open field to run around on, and a fixed camera. Getting behind enemies allows you to do critical attacks, and the combat requires more than just mashing the X button. The combat can be pretty deep at times, and intense. The combat keeps the game very interesting.
Luckily the game is paced extremely well. There are some sections that are very combat heavy, and others that are more storyline focused. If you fell in love with the combat like I did, there are 300 missions in total that are completely optional, that can make the game easier, but also are very action packed. Yet some are difficult to even try in your first play through.
The game does in fact, have a bit of replay value. Like it's inspiration, the story is soo good you may want to see it through a few more times, and it carries a new game + mode, which lets you keep your equipment and levels. With an extra difficulty that seemed impossible on the first play through, this may be ideal, to tackle those other missions, or to just go through the story again.
The game is about 15-20 hours long if you just do a straight walk, yet doing the extra missions can throw your playtime twice of that, even longer. Yet if you just rush, there is always incentive to come back, because the story is just that good.
So with that all said, Crisis Core is a must have. If you are a Final Fantasy VII fan, or just want a rewarding action RPG, with it's longevity and replay ability, you cannot go wrong. There truly isn't a better RPG for the PSP.