Crisis Core: 90% complete, 100+ gameplay hours

Final Fantasy VII: Crisis Core’s game director Hajime Tabata recently sat down to discuss the upcoming release of what is most likely the biggest PSP game ever made. He talks about the difficulties of developing for the PSP, the progress so far, and what gamers should expect from the title. Thanks to neogaf for the Japanese-English translation. Enjoy!

Where is the development process on Crisis Core?
Tabata: Right now we’re at about 90% done overall. Really, only compressing everything to the UMD’s capacity is left. Along with compressing we’re also deleting unnecessary data as we go, for everyone the final stretch is really intense and we’re forcing ourselves through the troubles. (laughs)

How long will the story be?
Tabata: I think that general play should be around 30 hours. With getting all of the materia in the missions and going out into Midgar for Sub-Events (Side Quests), when taking those elements into account it will be over 100 hours.

How do locations effect battles?
To take a step forward in the way that RPGs are played, we decided to go with a more action-oriented style. If you attack an enemy from behind you give greater damage, and it’s fun to take an advantageous position where the movement and characteristics of magic change. In the end, it’s similar to the fun element added to the FF series with the ATB System.

(continued below)

Is Crisis Core the end of the FFVII universe?
Tabata: Well it seems like the end, but it is nothing more than fourth installment. When the compilation will end depends on what Nomura and Kitase decide upon.

Why did you show Cloud’s shout at the end of the trailer?
Everyone who knows about FFVII’s History… absolutely they will recognize that portion of the game. Regarding the depiction of that portion, everyone felt really strongly that there was no way that we could avoid showing that portion. With that scene “No, no, you have to show it” was the message we got.

What will the Crisis Core “bundle” be like?
Nomura: It will be special and there will be a “wonderful” extra edition. For now, please wait for an announcement.

I think it goes with out saying that I’m very excited about this game. This game may alone be worth the price of a new PlayStation Portable. See more notes from the interview after the jump.

Other notes from the interview
- With in CC, “Loveless” is a drama from FF7 based upon an original work. It has an important meaning to Genesis, and is an important keyword in the story as a whole.
- Limit Breaks will level up. When the level is high, the amount of tension indicated by the amplitude of the waves on the chart will increase the power.
- Shisune is a guest character who first appeared in BC since in is assumed that the timing of CC and that game overlap. Before her appearance in BC what Shisune was working on was never shown, and it turns out that she was involved with CC’s Soldier Disappearance Incident.
- CC moves to where the events occur, and within those areas events and battles take place.
- CC’s size is unlike that of other handheld games.
- SP comes from an energy based on magic. You obtain some for each monster you defeat, and other than battles it is also used in the formation of Materia.
- When two materia are joined together you have the option to combine them (Synthesis)
- Some of the music being arranged for CC obviously takes it roots in the original melodies from FFVII. That was Ishimoto’s idea. Of course, CC will have original music as well.
- Each character will have a special memory fragment related to them. There is a high probably that will be present in the Reels.
- Summon monsters are able to be used so long as you possess the item associated with them, changing random Reels to represent the summon.

• FFVII Crisis Core magazine scan
• Final Fantasy Crisis Core and Tactics playable soon
• FFVII Crisis Core: 70% complete
• FFVII: Crisis Core Demo — Were Waiting
• Final Fantasy VII: Crisis Core screenshots

This entry was posted on Tuesday, May 29th, 2007 at 4:25 pm by Brandon Spencer and is filed under Games, Previews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.