And you know...honestly, Crisis Core wasn't really that bad. In fact, I'd have given it a B. It was the Genesis stuff that was really lame, and even THAT wouldn't have been that bad had the writers not only INSISTED on making him one of the primary focuses of the game, but also tried to make him a SYMPATHETIC villain of all things, despite showing us absolutely no reason, (aside from one throwaway line about how he used to be a good kid...) why we should consider him sympathetic. And of course, his supposed friendship with Sephiroth and Angeal seemed kind of weak and unsupported as well.

I say that because, for people who were supposed to be best buds, Sephiroth and Genesis didn't seem too fond of each other...They didn't seem like "friends" so much as Genesis was just obsessed with surpassing Sephiroth, and Sephiroth, at best, seemed indifferent to him, and at worst, thought of him as some annoying, whiny upstart who was just bitter about not being as famous as he was. I would think that if they were such good "friends", that Sephiroth would've been more upset or at least shown more emotion when Genesis started calling him a monster.

Instead, he was sort of like "you know what...screw you dude", and just let him walk without so much as raising his voice. Putting aside the fact that I thought trying to give Sephiroth more humanity was a bad move anyways (since there's SUCH a jarring contrast between what he does at the beginning, and what he eventually ends up doing), they really didn't do a lot to show us Genesis and Sephiroth's so-called "friendship".

Really, in my head, Crisis Core's story is about Zack, a young, bold, idealistic, caring young man who's life can be broken down into three stages...

1) The beginning, where he's rising in fame and prominence, and becoming a hero as he does good deeds and fights the Act 1 antagonist.

2) The stage where, just when everything was looking peachy keen, and the main threat is gone, all of a sudden, life falls apart as the unthinkable happens, and his whole life ends up being torn down because of the one man whom no one suspected would act the way he did (that man being Sephiroth of course).

3) The end, where everything he believes in is being challenged as he not only is being hunted down by the very corporation he's been loyal to for his whole life and forced to abandon the one he loves, but is also forced to fight against even some of his former best friends. He's forced under conditions that would make most people compromise their ideals, and yet, even when he has absolutely nothing to gain from it, he STILL holds fast to his ideals and dreams, because he's just THAT great of a guy.

And so, at the end, he doesn't just become a hero. He becomes a legend. And THAT was the best part of the game. THAT was the character I wanted to follow, not some fruity guy who's obsessed with some stupid play.

In fact, according to Wikipedia, the game makers even had to cutscenes concerning some of Zack's interactions with Cloud while they were running away to Midgar, because there wasn't enough room. So, of course, rather than cutting out some of the superfluous "friendship" and "tragedy" stuff with Genesis, they chose to cut out character developing moments concerning Zack instead. And THAT...was a big mistake!

Other complaints I had were that I really didn't get Angeal's deal, and why he was so adamant about believing himself to be a monster who needed to be destroyed. I mean, ok, he's got a white angel wing...alright, so that's kind of weird...and a little fruity...but I don't see how that makes you a MONSTER per say! And I really didn't get why he was so insistent on having Zack kill him. I mean, he had one throwaway line that "sometimes I feel like I'm about to snap, like I don't know myself or something", but, that could mean just about anything.

I mean heck, I once felt that way the very first time I started having intense feelings for women, but that doesn't mean I'm unhealthy or anything...so what, does that mean he's flustered? Is he just getting really angry? Has he just hit his breaking point? Or is there literally something wrong with his mind, where he eventually WILL turn into a monster if he doesn't die soon?

Because if that's the case, the story didn't really do a very good job of indicating that. I mean, Genesis more or less stays the same throughout the entire story, so why should it be any different for Angeal? And for that matter, why would Angeal's clone (who I guess has combined with Lazard or something) still be perfectly normal if the real deal would've broken down at some point? And why would the other genetic copies still have the presence of mind to protect Zack and Aerith (though I'd prefer to call her "Aeris" if you don't mind), as opposed to being mindless beasts?

But yeah, even so, I didn't think it was that bad...although I will say that that scene with Zack and his Mentor, as the Mentor grows his white angel wing and has his little spiel...I don't know about you guys, but for me, that was by far THE most unintentionally HILARIOUS scene in the entire game XD. Everything, from the dialogue spoken ("Those aren't monsters wings, they're...angels wings!, and "WHAT DO ANGELS DREAM OF?!) to the music that played, made the whole thing seem WAY more fruity than it should've been XD!!

Crisis Core was quite an enjoyable title - it's battle system was well designed and easy to grasp, and the Materia Fusion system gave a unqiue spin on the original Materia system. The DMW mechanic was interesting though, if a little convoluted.

But yeah, basically ignore the whole Genesis and Angeal subtext - their stories was little more than padding added to give Zack an antagonist to hunt for the majority of the game til the inevitable Nibelheim Incident and obvious conclusion in the wastelands surrounding Midgar. Not to mention Nomura's stupid changes to Aeris's personality (he turned her from a remarkably confident, assertive and intelligent young woman wise beyond her years, into a ditzy airheaded bimbo who is afraid of the sky (she constantly thinks 'the sky is going to fall on her') and only started wearing pink and selling flowers 'because Zack told her to').

I'm sorry, but this comes across as nothing less than a betrayal to what was a much loved character (and my favourite FF heroine), in that Nomura and his pop-culture fetish tried to make the game appeal to the younger crowd by turning Aeris into a typical Japanese teenager more obsessed with her looks than hiding her powers. And every time she opened her mouth... although Andrea Bowen's voice acting was light years ahead of Mena Suvari's torturous portrayal of Aeris in Advent Children, her constant giggling in CC got grating after a while.

Despite that though, Crisis Core is definetely the best of the slightly dubious Compilation titles, and is well deserving of it's title as a 'must have' game if you own a PSP.

But yeah, basically ignore the whole Genesis and Angeal subtext - their stories was little more than padding added to give Zack an antagonist to hunt for the majority of the game til the inevitable Nibelheim Incident and obvious conclusion in the wastelands surrounding Midgar. Not to mention Nomura's stupid changes to Aeris's personality (he turned her from a remarkably confident, assertive and intelligent young woman wise beyond her years, into a ditzy airheaded bimbo who is afraid of the sky (she constantly thinks 'the sky is going to fall on her') and only started wearing pink and selling flowers 'because Zack told her to').

I'm sorry, but this comes across as nothing less than a betrayal to what was a much loved character (and my favourite FF heroine), in that Nomura and his pop-culture fetish tried to make the game appeal to the younger crowd by turning Aeris into a typical Japanese teenager more obsessed with her looks than hiding her powers. And every time she opened her mouth... although Andrea Bowen's voice acting was light years ahead of Mena Suvari's torturous portrayal of Aeris in Advent Children, her constant giggling in CC got grating after a while.

Well, to be fair, this WAS five years before the events of FFVII, so I can see her being a bit more valley-girl esque. Just a phase, if you will.