page_title: Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII
section_title: Development
hierarchical_section_title: Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII / Development
caption_attribution_description: English: Hajime Tabata in San Francesco church, Lucca for Lucca Comics &amp; Games 2016. Italiano: Hajime Tabata a Lucca Comics &amp; Games 2016. Chiesa di San Francesco.
context_page_description: Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII is an action role-playing game developed and published by Square Enix for the PlayStation Portable. First released in 2007, the game is a prequel to the 1997 video game Final Fantasy VII and is a part of the metaseries Compilation of Final Fantasy VII, which includes other products related to the original game.
  The game primarily focuses on Zack Fair, a young member of the paramilitary organization SOLDIER, who is assigned to look for the missing SOLDIER Genesis Rhapsodos. As he searches for Genesis, Zack discovers Genesis' origin, Project G, and how it is related to two other high-ranking SOLDIERs Sephiroth and Angeal Hewley. The game's storyline takes the player from the war between the megacorporation Shinra and the people of Wutai to the events in Nibelheim, ending just before the beginning of Final Fantasy VII.
  The game was directed by Hajime Tabata, with Tetsuya Nomura serving as character designer. Before development, the Square Enix staff initially planned to make a PlayStation Portable port of the mobile phone game Before Crisis: Final Fantasy VII, but after discussion, they decided to create a new game.
context_section_description: The idea of Crisis Core originated when Hajime Tabata was chosen as director for an upcoming Final Fantasy title for the PlayStation Portable. After discussion with Tetsuya Nomura and Yoshinori Kitase, Tabata decided that the game should be another installment in the Compilation of Final Fantasy VII, feeling that the pressure of producing a game from a popular series would motivate both the staff and himself. The original idea was to make a PlayStation Portable port of Before Crisis: Final Fantasy VII, as it had been released for mobile-phones and the staff wanted to expand it. However, after deciding Zack was going to be the protagonist of the new game, the idea of a Before Crisis port was cancelled.
  Kitase wanted to make sure the game exceeded fans' expectations, so he made sure that rather than making it as a "tribute" to Final Fantasy VII, it shared important links with other titles from Compilation of Final Fantasy VII. Similarly, Tabata explained that he and the staff were very wary throughout production of altering the "fans' perception of Final Fantasy VII's iconic characters." For example, one of the main background events from  Final Fantasy VII, Nibelheim's destruction, had been changed somewhat in the OVA Last Order: Final Fantasy VII, and due to negative fan reaction to these change, the game staff decided not to make any major changes in Crisis Core.  However, they also operated on the principal that this game dealt with those characters' "younger days," so that new elements could be added without changing the characters too much.
  One of the primary reasons Zack was chosen as protagonist was because his fate was predetermined. Kitase stated that Zack's story had "been cooking for 10 years" as, despite being a minor character in Final Fantasy VII, Nomura had already developed conceptual artwork, and Kazushige Nojima had already worked out a story. The game was originally meant to have more scenes depicting Zack and Cloud's flight to Midgar, so as to expand on their friendship and unrealized plans, but these scenes were removed due to UMD limitations, and so the staff focused more on Zack's background as a formidable warrior. The addition of the character of Genesis to the story came about after discussions between producer Hideki Imaizumi and the character's Japanese voice actor, Gackt, as Imaizumi had been impressed with the characters' brief appearance in the secret ending to Dirge of Cerberus: Final Fantasy VII, and felt there was great room to expand the character. Sephiroth's role was specifically written to give him a "much more human side." The game's logo represents various main characters; the blue sky symbolizes Zack; the white feather symbolizes Angeal; and the water symbolizes Aerith.
  Crisis Core was first envisioned as an action game, but because almost all of the staff had more experience designing RPGs, they decided to modify it, making battles more similar to the ones found in standard RPGs. However, they also added more action orientated elements to the battles, resulting in the game becoming more of an action RPG than a traditional RPG. The Materia system was designed so that players could choose between "RPG-oriented enhancements" and "action-oriented enhancements," as well as to help with the game's balance. Additionally, the Digital Mind Wave system (DMW) was added to give gameplay an element of luck, as well as to prevent combat feeling repetitive. Nomura and Kitase wanted to include this in the game because of their enthusiasm for pachinko machines.
  The game was first announced at the 2004 E3, prior to the release of the PlayStation Portable. Its first trailer consisted of clips from Last Order. In an interview for Famitsu, Nomura stated that a playable demo of the game would be ready by the end of 2006. However, there was no mention of whether the demo would be openly available to PSP owners. By May 2005, Nomura announced that he had designed the concept art for the game, with the gameplay set to be "interesting" and "previously unseen." In May 2007, both Nomura and Tabata revealed th
caption: Hajime Tabata was chosen to be director and consulted with Tetsuya Nomura and Yoshinori Kitase on the title to create.
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