Crisis Core Final Fantasy VII (Special Edition)

Zack Fair deserved better, and at least his collector's edition delivered. The Crisis Core Final Fantasy VII Special Edition for PSP comes in a hard art box containing the standard release and a hardcover art book. It's clean, it's premium, and it carries the weight of one of the most emotionally devastating prequels in gaming history.

Crisis Core took everything we thought we knew about the Final Fantasy VII universe and reframed it through the eyes of a character who was barely a footnote in the original. The PSP was arguably at its peak when this launched, and Crisis Core was the system's flagship RPG moment. The hardcover art book is a serious piece, filled with the kind of Tetsuya Nomura artwork that defined an entire era of Square Enix design.

The hard art box is what separates this from the standard release on the shelf. It's sturdy, it's display-ready, and it doesn't have that flimsy cardboard feel that plagues so many PSP special editions. For Final Fantasy VII collectors, this sits in a lineage that stretches from the original 1997 release all the way through Rebirth and beyond. It's a piece of the larger puzzle.

The Special Edition remains one of the PSP's most sought-after collector's items, and for good reason. That art book alone has become a reference piece for FF7 fans.