A “Final Fantasy” game can be summed up with the following words: long and touching storyline, memorable characters, huge number of secrets, great looking movies and very high replayability. Keeping this in mind, you might be thinking how could a Final Fantasy for the PSP keep these things, and, like all Final Fantasy games before it, bring something new to the table. Well, can it? Punk?!

With two movies (Advent Children and Last Order) and two other games, namely Dirge of Cerberus: Final Fantasy VII and Dirge of Cerberus Lost Episode: Final Fantasy VII, the story was almost gap free, but one more still remained: the Nibelheim incident and Cloud`s “mentor” Zack. Zack is the main character of Crisis Core and you might remember him from flashbacks in Final Fantasy VII or from The Last Order. While not given much importance before, I`m glad to see an entire episode was dedicated to him, since Zack is probably one of the best defined Final Fantasy main characters, and his story as he grows from a naïve 2-nd class Soldier, to a full fledged 1-st, will move anyone.

Memorable characters will make an appearance here, naturally, and it was really great being able to see the playground in the slums again, using this new engine. You`ll get to meet Cloud, as he`s a no-name 2-nd class Soldier who admires Zack, you`ll meet Tifa who`s just learning to fight and is inquiring about blond members of Soldier and you`ll see how Aeris got her ribbon . You`ll also meet new characters, that have never appeared in a Final Fantasy game before, such as Angeal and Genesis, as you play through their sad tale. Of course, I`m not even mentioning Sephiroth…

With memorable characters, a deep and entertaining storyline as well as an excellent and dynamic combat system, I`m glad to say that Crisis Core truly deserves its place in the Final Fantasy saga and the game pushes the PSP to its limits.

Read the full review here.