Crisis Core has the answers in an original RPG prequel exclusive to Sony's PlayStation Portable. It marks Square Enix's fourth and for now final entry in the "Compilation of Final Fantasy VII" sequence, which launched in 2004 with a mobile phone game and which is probably best known for the CGI direct-to-DVD feature-length film Advent Children. The latter chronicled what happened after FFVII. Crisis Core covers the events that led up to it.

Crisis Core is also the first FFVII spinoff with traditional role-playing features that hark back to the parameters and principles established in the original. It marks the return of the magical element known as Materia, a mystical substance players collect and tag Zack with to boost his combat portfolio by adding tactical and magical abilities. Here it's also amenable to "Materia Fusion," a new technique by which players can combine discrete Materia to create new and synergistic hybrids.

Combat occurs randomly as Zack wanders around the futuristic urban megalopolis Midgar and frequently during brief, optional ad-hoc missions—300 in all—initiated manually from save points and designed for the PSP's mobile on-the-go profile. Attacking happens in real time by moving Zack around a 3-D playing field and tapping buttons to swing his weapon, block or dodge, while the left and right shoulder buttons facilitate cycling through melee or Materia abilities without the need for drill-in menus. During battles a DMW or "Digital Mind Wave" spins like a slot machine, randomly rolling triple digits that correspond to variable effects, from temporary ability bonuses to leveling up Zack's Materia and even Zack himself.

A proper portable prequel

Will we ever get a proper Final Fantasy VII remake? Who knows? Who cares? As long as Square Enix keeps making games like Crisis Core, the question's moot. That's because even when they're mining familiar material, they're making stupendously original games.

Meaning? That while this looks and sounds and more or less unfolds like a FFVII game, it plays like something else entirely. Instead of turn-based combat staged in detached arenas, the action's now embedded and real-time, with a panoply of tactical options you can cycle through in microseconds to shape the flow and groove of combat. Instead of statically leveling up Materia, you can here recombine it into hybrid or entirely new substances, some which even change up the choreography and range of Zack's swordplay. Instead of locking you into a linear, plot-heavy slog, you can detour from the 15-hour main story into the mission generator and leisurely choose among dozens of escalating challenges—perfect for someone who has just 10 or 15 minutes to get in, clear an area, and get out.

On the other hand, while the game benefits from the the latest 3-D visuals and abandons the original's spiky-haired bobbleheads, director Hajime Tabata favors nostalgia when choosing, say, between the sophistication of last year's Final Fantasy XII and the juvenile writing so fondly associated with the original. That doubles as a warning: The overwrought plotting that divides FFVII players into lovers and haters is back and pretty much ubiquitous. Whichever you are, you can't skip the cutscenes, which can be a train wreck when you're stuck between a pre-scene save point and an impossible battle.

As for combat, the newfangled DMW can initially feel arbitrary, but as battles drag on and your tactical arsenal evolves, it's the perfect antidote to the sort of predictability that plagues combat-heavy games. Once you'd sussed out how to beat most enemies in the original FFVII, winning was pretty much signed and sealed. The DMW ensures that's never the case in Crisis Core.

With Final Fantasy's fanbase, Crisis Core was bound to sell millions as either a short, half-baked cash-in or a sophisticated stand-alone adventure. Thankfully Square Enix cares enough about the medium to ensure that it turned out to be the latter.