From my experience with Crisis Core, having been one of the few who didn't play FF7 until after playing Crisis Core (at the judgment of those who yearned for my joining their glorious experience, as well as curiosity about where the story continues), it was an incredible story. Square had ten years to think it over, of course, which may be largely the reason for this, as well as the great story to work with. Without the background of what happens in FF7, it makes everything that much better; you see everything for the first time without revealing that great story. Hints are openly available, with memorable characters at nearly every turn.

Exploring the vast world, with or without prior knowledge of it, is great fun. Taking on any of the hundreds of missions to boost your strength, find secrets, items, summons and other goodies. Scouting around the world will take you to battles with the surrounding monsters, and following the story regularly pits the very best against you, constantly testing your ability to fight properly.

That's why the battle system is so crucial, and while Square managed to pull it off, it's severely handicapped by the lack of control. Combat is all real-time, meaning it's first come first serve. The faster you are and making quick decisions on attacks and opponents to attack, the better you will do. The available action menu is almost completely customizable with plenty of different magic and physical attacks open to use. Collecting and empowering those abilities will take a bit more time, of course, but it won't take long to be rolling out Thundaga's and Graviga's without hesitation.

The strongest element of Final Fantasy combat, summons, has basically been stripped away from player's hands. There is no way to control when a summon or special attack is performed at all. If you are in trouble and a specific summon could end the battle quickly, tough luck. Luck, in fact, seems to be the most important aspect of actually achieving a summon.

Using a system called DMW (Digital Mind Wave), a box on the top left corner of the screen functions as a slot machine. During combat, it will spin, and if concurrent or sequential numbers, a temporary ability like invincibility or unlimited magic points starts. If two faces of game characters match, then the slot machine pauses the battle and engulfs the screen, allowing players hit hit the X button in what would seem to be a futile attempt at changing fate. However, the number of button presses does have an influence, though there doesn't seem to be a system to conquering it fully save for basic instinct. If successful, the character selected will have their special attack commence. At the same time, if any two numbers match, magic or attack powers may (or may not) level up, and if all three match (always on "777") then Zack will level up.

Summons, on the other hand, require not only the two matching character avatars, but a special set of button presses (also completely unknown) to activate another gamble, this one showing the available summons. Should one match across the board, only then will it be summoned.