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I got Crisis Core a few weeks back and finished it tonight.
Overall? It landed far better with me this time than it did when I first played it. Perhaps because I knew what I was getting, story-wise, and could focus on the parts that it really does do well. Like the ending
.
I have absolutely loved exploring the areas this time. They look gorgeous and some of them give some nice hints to their possible appearances in the FFVII Remake trilogy. By this I mean that Midgar reuses many assets from the Remake, so perhaps some of the assets for other areas in Crisis Core here might make their way into Rebirth, and so on. At least it seems likely that they will want to keep their visions for the areas somewhat aligned.
As for the missions, I did not find them to be the huge chore that they were in the original. I don't even remember doing too many in the original because I found them tedious and boring. But this time, I found them to be relatively easy. Once I'd unlocked Jump I was capable of killing most enemies in one hit. And then once I unlocked Costly Punch I was capable of killing even powerful enemies with one or a couple of hits. I became quite OP, in fact. I'm about 80% of the way through the missions now, so I still have the most challenging ones to go, and some of them are still a challenge because many enemies can one hit kill me too. But I can also avoid most of the tedious encounters by hugging the walls and avoiding them spawning in the first place. I've cleared most missions within about five minutes, including getting all of the treasures.
I actually found the missions to be quite fun at times. The thing that remains frustrating about them is that they are, sadly, repetitive in nature. A handful of recycled maps, even recycled dialogue twisted to suit slightly different contexts and combinations of enemies (the Yuffie questline makes Zack look like an absolute idiot for falling for the same tricks again and again). You clear one, eager to get on with the core plot, only to see a message that another one has popped up. And it is a Sisyphean task to try and do them when they appear. They just keep coming.
And I agree that these, and the sidequests, can get in the way of the emotional and serious sides of the core plot. Not only is there the waterfall mini-game at Gongaga which gets in the way of Zack returning to the Mako-poisoned Cloud in a timely fashion, but earlier at Nibelheim you are oddly encouraged to help a kid find the Seven Wonders of the town. A fun quest, but they struggled with fitting it in without disrupting the flow of that pivotal moment so much that it even interferes with the Nibelheim fire scene.
But that is just the nature of how the game was put together in the first place. Overall, I was impressed by this remake and now appreciate Crisis Core a lot more than I did.
Overall? It landed far better with me this time than it did when I first played it. Perhaps because I knew what I was getting, story-wise, and could focus on the parts that it really does do well. Like the ending
.I have absolutely loved exploring the areas this time. They look gorgeous and some of them give some nice hints to their possible appearances in the FFVII Remake trilogy. By this I mean that Midgar reuses many assets from the Remake, so perhaps some of the assets for other areas in Crisis Core here might make their way into Rebirth, and so on. At least it seems likely that they will want to keep their visions for the areas somewhat aligned.
As for the missions, I did not find them to be the huge chore that they were in the original. I don't even remember doing too many in the original because I found them tedious and boring. But this time, I found them to be relatively easy. Once I'd unlocked Jump I was capable of killing most enemies in one hit. And then once I unlocked Costly Punch I was capable of killing even powerful enemies with one or a couple of hits. I became quite OP, in fact. I'm about 80% of the way through the missions now, so I still have the most challenging ones to go, and some of them are still a challenge because many enemies can one hit kill me too. But I can also avoid most of the tedious encounters by hugging the walls and avoiding them spawning in the first place. I've cleared most missions within about five minutes, including getting all of the treasures.
I actually found the missions to be quite fun at times. The thing that remains frustrating about them is that they are, sadly, repetitive in nature. A handful of recycled maps, even recycled dialogue twisted to suit slightly different contexts and combinations of enemies (the Yuffie questline makes Zack look like an absolute idiot for falling for the same tricks again and again). You clear one, eager to get on with the core plot, only to see a message that another one has popped up. And it is a Sisyphean task to try and do them when they appear. They just keep coming.
And I agree that these, and the sidequests, can get in the way of the emotional and serious sides of the core plot. Not only is there the waterfall mini-game at Gongaga which gets in the way of Zack returning to the Mako-poisoned Cloud in a timely fashion, but earlier at Nibelheim you are oddly encouraged to help a kid find the Seven Wonders of the town. A fun quest, but they struggled with fitting it in without disrupting the flow of that pivotal moment so much that it even interferes with the Nibelheim fire scene.
But that is just the nature of how the game was put together in the first place. Overall, I was impressed by this remake and now appreciate Crisis Core a lot more than I did.