Amazing story, wonderful characters, fun gameplay, beautiful graphics, everything for FFVII fans and first time players!
The gamplay is real time action. You can controls Zack's movements with the directional pad or the analog stick. Dodging can be done by hitting the square button, holding the triangle button will Guard. Tapping the X button will make Zack attack. However, it is also the same button for using materia. The L and R buttons can be tapped to scroll through the basic attack , equipped materia and items. It can be a little awkward at the beginning to get use to it but soon it is easy to remember how many taps it is to get to the desired attack and you wont even have to look at the bar.
During battles a slot machine type icon will be spinning in the upper left hand corner. This is the Digital Mind Wave (DMW). It will give you abilities during the battle, give stat bonuses, produce Limit Breaks, level up materia and allow Zack to level up. The limit breaks are tied to the Character pictures that spin, get 3 pictures of one character and you will use the limit break associated to that character (ie. triple Cloud pictures will produce the Meteor Shots limit break). Triple 7's will level Zack up. If you get 2 of any number between 1 and 6 it will level up the materia in that slot in your equipment menu. Getting a combination of 7's (not triple) will give you bonuses like no costs for casting magic or attack materia, barriers against magic and physical damage, ect. The DMW is very important because it is the only way Zack and your materia can level up. To make sure it always keeps spinning, never loose all of you SP and if Curse is cast on Zack, remove it with a Remedy.
Materia gives you magic attacks and stronger physical attacks then just your basic sword attack. Most materia can be found through the extensive 300 missions available. Some, like the DMW materia (which boosts the chances of a certain limit break occurring), can be bought at stores. What is really important, is the Materia Fusion ability that will be unlocked while going through the story. Fusion allows you to combine materia to create stronger attacks or even creating a new, stronger materia. Stat bonuses can be gained by combining materia. Items can be used in the fusion to boost the stats even higher. Fusion is the only way to max out Zack stats. I suggest putting the stat boost you want into a magic or physical attack materia instead of increasing the Hit Point, Attack, ect, materia because they will take up the precious 6 slots that are available. This allows you to max Zack's stats while still having Curaga for healing and other strong attacks to battle with. Expect to spend a bit of time on Fusion if you want to max everything.
I really dont need to say much about the graphics. They are the finest ever on the PSP. Not just the cut scenes either, the in-game is beautiful. It is has very little loading at all. The game moves from exploring, to battles, then back to exploring smoothly. The first time in battle, I was expecting the game to need to load and just sat there for a second before I realized I was already able to continue.
Crisis Core is a wonderful game. It allows people to play the game the way they want to. If you want to go through the story but dont want to play for hours on end, you can skip the majority of the side missions. Youll get about 15-20 hours of gameplay time by doing this. However if you want to do all the missions, battle Minerva, max Zack's stats and do everything you possibly can, you can expect 50+ hours from this game. Personally, for me to get 100% completion, it took me 66 hours.
Any Final Fantasy fan should not miss this game and neither should anyone who loves RPGs, even if they have never played a Final Fantasy game before. The story alone is worth it, not to mention the fact that Crisis Core has the most beautiful ending of any game I have ever played. This game will keep you entertained for hours and you may not be able to put down your PSP. A more than worthy addition to the FFVII saga.