8 Video Game Spin-Offs That Broke EVERYTHING
1. Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII
On the one hand, releasing a prequel to Final Fantasy VII made a lot of sense. We could get more insight into Zack Fair, the man that influences FF7’s Cloud Strife, and there is certainly room for things to be fleshed out in the events leading up to the PS1 game.
However, it mostly complicates matters to a needless degree.
Genesis and Angeal, new characters for the game, dilute antagonist Sephiroth’s loner behaviour and even his power as a villain. Not only does Genesis in particular talk like a pantomime villain, he and Angeal sprouting wings dilutes the gravitas of the One Winged Angel himself.
An important moment in FF7 sees Sephiroth learning the twisted circumstances of his birth in Nibelheim library, and losing his mind. As of Crisis Core’s telling, Sephiroth is needlessly told his origin outright moments earlier by Genesis. This doesn’t assist the storytelling - it’s just shoehorning new faces in for the sake of it.
More than this, Crisis Core tries to be cute by having Zack do a bunch of things Cloud will later, like ride atop a train or fall through the roof of Aerith’s church. Zack encountering a nine year old Yuffie and being somehow responsible for the name of Tifa’s bar just shrinks what was once one of gaming’s most entrancing worlds.