Regardless of its status as a prequel, this epic adventure will no doubt leave its mark.
Lets start with the basics. The visuals are absolutely stunning for the PSP. This game blows any PS1, and most PS2 (1 or 2 PS3 as well unfortunately) games away. The CG cutscenes, Summons, and even regular gameplay graphics will dazzle you, knowing they are coming from a Portable system.
The Audio is exquizite. They revived some of the old music from Final Fantasy VII and then created quite a few more for this game only. The voice acting is done exceedingly well, with you growing very fond of the characters, and thoroughly engrossing you in the story. However, my only complaint about the whole game is upbeat song at the end, it really didn't fit in my mind.....
But that's neither here nor there, and truthfully every review says the same thing about the graphics and sound.
Gameplay is standard RPG exploration and battle. The exploration is standard fare, with some area's having quite a few battles fairly quickly, and some having hardly any battles as you romp around looking for story elements and chests. The battle system (to me) was revolutionary. I thoroughly enjoyed the DMW. I played through the game on the easy mode and did absolutely no quests my first time through, and it fit perfectly. The enemies were never too hard, or too easy. Always just on the edge of annoying. I died on a couple boss fights, and I spent NO TIME levelling up. That's the secret, I just progressed the story. I went straight through without worrying about standing on the same spot for hours just trying to get a level. When I was in a boss battle my Limit breaks would pop up regularly and in most cases would fit well into my battle. Even landing on the healing limit with full HP would just double your HP, so you were never mad about which limit you hit. It works perfectly with the fast paced action of the game, and I liked it!! The missions were kind of repetative, but guess what....they're optional. If you don't want to play them, don't (Though I do recommend a couple just for the Summon's)
The story......Wow.....I won't spoil anything for you, but even without the Final Fantasy VII links, this was one of the best stories I've seen in a video game in years. It was emotional, and....well....you'll see. The story is what pushes this game over the edge from great, to perfect. The characters are likable (which will conflict with some of your deep rooted hatreds for Sephiroth) and...just....wow.
Anyway, all around I believe this game to not only be one of the best RPG's around (let alone for the PSP) but it should also take it's place as one of the greatest game's of all time. It was truly a masterpiece.
P.S. If you want my personal view on a FFVII remake, it'll be in my blog, this is a review of Crisis Core