Crisis Core Complete...For Now

I just finished Crisis Core. Literally, like 5 minutes ago. From my previous posts, I stand by my assertion that Crisis Core is an average enough game on its own, but as a prequel to FFVII, it's really incredible. The story is much more involving, and, to use a common English phrase used by Japanese people, it's very moving.

I'd like to briefly attempt the impossible, and touch on why I liked the ending without giving anything away to those handful of you have never played any game in the FFVII universe. Those of us familiar with FFVII know the outcome of Zack and Cloud before Crisis Core even starts. Their fates are preordained. Despite this, and the fact that Square knows that most of the people playing this game already know how the story ends, it still manages to do some interesting things. Essentially, Crisis Core explores the concepts of honor, loyalty, and even death to a great degree than many other games. The ending really manages to put you in Zack's shoes, and even attempts to explain some of the game play systems and how they are connected with Zack. The ending is sad, moving, and hopeful all in one, and surprisingly mature, especially in the super-emo world of Final Fantasy.

So, I think that's all that needs to be said about the ending. I'm sure it was vague and mysterious to those of you who haven't played the game, and hopefully interesting to those of you who have. I would recommend Crisis Core to about any PSP owner. The story is mostly intelligible, even to newcomers to the series. The exception is the lengthy ending, which I know would probably be a little baffling to a newcomer.

I went ahead and finished the main storyline of the game. But sometime in the future, I plan on loading up my save before the final boss and playing through the rest of the optional missions, just for completions' sake.

But for now, I have some other games on my plate. After reading about the Widescreen Mod for the original Baldur's Gate on PC, which lets you play the game in higher resolutions, I found I had acquired a very strong itch to play it. I played a couple hours of it once, but that was long ago. But I don't have enough space on my computer, so I have to beat Grim Fandango first to make room. And of course, I can't wait to delve further into Patapon now that Crisis Core is finished. So, I have plenty to do. And I'm sure you do too.