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Developer: Square Enix
Publisher: Square Enix
Release Date: March 25, 2008
System: PSP
ESRB Rating: T
Official Web site

0:00 I'd call myself a fan of Final Fantasy VII, though I'm decidedly not a fanboy. There's an important difference, mainly having to do with cosplay.

0:01 Pan over a beautiful dystopian city as the credits roll. A chopper flies in and someone's running down a corridor. A guy talking in an office. AERIS! OMG! Sephiroth, explosions, an apple, a gun, a swordfight, a horse with armor. More swordfighting, more running, a box labeled "sealed," Aeris kneeling in prayer and... title! Whew! I'm already out of breath.

0:02 Call me a sucker, but the little "bloop" sound effect when moving through the initial menu selector takes me right back to the original FFVII.

0:03 The camera does a long zoom out from a sign for the Shin-Ra Electric Power Company to a bulging tower rising over a dirty, industrial city. "Wutai troops have hijacked the Shinra Express," says a voice over a radio. A helicopter full of SOLDIER, er, soldiers, hovers over the train. "Eliminate them and take control of the train." "Oh yeah!" says Zack, our immaculately coiffed protagonist.

0:05 Zack runs towards the attackers on the roof of the train, blocking bullets with his sword and jumping over an RPG missile in super slow-mo. Just another day at the office. "SOLDIER 2nd class Zack is ON THE JOB!" he says to no one in particular.

0:06 Zack jumps off as the train pulls into the station. Pan down to ground level as Zack gets a cell phone call. "Making progress, Zack?" asks Angeal, who is Zack's leader, I guess? He goes on to tell Zack that the Wutai troops on the train were actually Shinra troops in disguise. Is this supposed to be important to people who haven't played FFVII? Heck, I've played FFVII and I barely understand why that's important.

0:08 I'm in control, and running directly into my first battle. "Activating combat mode." Compared to most action games, there's a pretty unforgivable delay between putting in an attack command and actually seeing the sword slash come down. Compared to most RPGs, though, this is much more interesting and fast-paced than the usual turn-based battles, so it depends on your perspective, I guess. "Conflict resolved."

0:10 Citizens are running down the stair that Zack is currently running up in a cut scene. Not a good sign. Now we know why -- it's a big blue lion thing with red hair and a spiked tail. I HATE those things!

0:12 My attack strategy involves staying far away from the lion's swinging tail and throwing magic attacks from across the room. The lion keeps pouncing to keep up with me, but I scamper away without taking too much damage. Positioning seems to have an effect on damage. This is a million times more interesting than the battles in the original game.

0:13 "Modulating Phase" says the game as a slot machine pops up with Zack's face. A "Power Surge" gets activated and Zack does a ridiculous slashing combo automatically. What just happened, and how can I make it happen again?