Before Crisis

Before Crisis: Final Fantasy VII is an entry in the orgasm-inducingly popular Final Fantasy series, and a prequel to the most well-known entry in the series, Final Fantasy VII. It is part of the Compilation of Final Fantasy VII.

Before Crisis follows the Turks, who in this game are a larger and more competent organization compared to the Goldfish Poop Gang the players are likely to remember from Final Fantasy VII, and are commanded by a different leader, Veld. The Turks battle the forces of AVALANCHE, the anti-Shinra resistance group led by the young swordswoman Elfé. Contrary to the group of the same name led by Barret years later, this incarnation of AVALANCHE is larger, more violent, more organized, and pose a larger threat to the company. Eventually the Turks find out the AVALANCHE scientist Fuhito is seeking the broken shards of a Summon Materia that calls the ultimate monster Zirconiade, "The One Who Will Burn The World", to do exactly that.

The game functions as an RPG but with a simpler system. Materia returned but with a slightly different function, and players could level up and equip armor. Completing certain episodes increased their Turk rank which gave access to stronger equipment and Materia.

Before Crisis is currently a Japan-only release, being released in episodic format on mobile phones. Square-Enix announced plans to release an English version of the game back in 2006, but the project has seemed to have died and no further mentions of it have been made aside from whispers of a PSP version. Thus, Before Crisis remains the only Final Fantasy VII spin-off to not see an English localization.

This game contains examples of:

 * Action Girl: All of the female Turks and Elfé.
 * All There in the Manual: Since the player character Turks are interchangeable in-game, their character profiles are the only place to gives any details to their individual characteristics and backstories.
 * Ascended Extra: "Shuriken (Female)" was given a prominent role in Crisis Core under the alias Cissnei.
 * Bonus Boss: The destruction of Zirconiade awakens the seventh Weapon, Jade Weapon, who hunts the Turks on the principal they're too powerful to be allowed to live if they can destroy the ultimate summon.
 * Continuity Nod: Certain missions portray the launching of Cid's rocket, the destruction of Corel, the infamous Nibelheim incident, and eventually pursue Zack and Cloud when they escape Hojo. The Turks also run aross Azul and Shalua Rui.
 * Dismantled MacGuffin: The Zirconiade Materia pieces.
 * Establishing Character Moment: Elfé is introduced fighting Sephiroth in Junon, and does a good job defending herself to the point Sephiroth admits he's impressed with her skills. Elfé retreats after questioning Sephiroth's reason for fighting and claiming she has hers. Character established.
 * Hello, Insert Name Here: The player Turks are given no names in the game and are known by their weapons and gender, such as "Rod (Male)", "Twin Guns (Male)" and "Shuriken (Female)".
 * Hot Amazon: The female Turks, especially Martial Arts (Female), who is described as "tall and strongly built."
 * Katanas Are Just Better: Elfé's weapon of choice. And, of course, Katana (Male)
 * Karma Houdini: When President Shinra finds out is supplying AVALANCHE with money and company info, his "punishment" is to be shipped off to Junon under "house arrest" so Shinra can save face rather than admit.
 * Luke, I Am Your Father: Elfé's father is.
 * Mad Scientist: Fuhito. All you need to know about him can be given in three words: he idolizes Hojo.
 * The Mole: Someone in Shinra is leaking AVALANCHE top-secret company information, and someone is funding them a lot of money too. It turns out to be.
 * Mythology Gag: Yet another Shinra employee ends up crashing through the roof of the Sector 5 church and wakes up on the flowerbed. For those keeping score, that's three (that we know of).
 * One-Winged Angel:
 * Retcon: Probably the guiltiest entry in the whole Compilation in terms of this.
 * Power Degeneration: Elfé has superhuman strength, speed, stamina and the like due to . It also happens to be slowing killing her.
 * Sealed Evil in a Can: Zirconiade.
 * There Is Another: This game finally canonically answers the question of just where the hell Red XIII's kids came from, as it features his mate at one point. She was turned into stone, but there's a time limit on it.
 * Villain Protagonists: The Turks are the good guys, AVALANCHE is the enemy.
 * We Can Rule Together: Surprisingly, Elfé makes this offer to Aerith of all people, asking her to join AVALANCHE since as a Cetra Aerith ought to hate Shinra for hurting the planet. Of course, Aerith refuses; she doesn't like Shinra but she's no terrorist either.
 * Well-Intentioned Extremist: Elfé and the rest of AVALANCHE (except for Fuhito).
 * With Great Power Comes Great Insanity: Fuhito's "Ravens" are genetically modified AVALANCHE troops based on SOLDIER. And they're completely devoid of humanity for it.