Another innovation in this game is the Digital Mind Wave (DMW) feature in the game. Crisis Core is a solitary adventure. There is no party following you and entering battle by your side, but Square Enix obviously wanted you to meet many characters and have benefits by knowing/meeting them. Once you meet certain key characters, they are added to your DMW which is a perpetually spinning three column slot wheel at the top of your screen. The DMW will stop spinning occasionally and will assign benefits to Zach depending on what image they stop at (no magic cost, no attack point cost, etc.). If the outer two wheels stop at the same character they fill the screen and a Power Surge may occur. During the Power Surge, if we see the middle wheel also stop on the matching character you are treated to a cutscene and you execute what could be called a Limit Break, a special power associated with the character chosen. At times, the right combination is hit, the wheel switches to the summoning characters and a summon will occur if all three wheels match.

Further to this there are numbers that also cycle with the images, if two matching numbers pop-up your matching numbered Materia/Accessory will power up, and if all three wheels hit a 7, then Zach is leveled up. It is a really unique take on special abilities and leveling, and since this is a handheld title, it just works. The action is so fast and common that this freeing up of resource management adds to the enjoyment of the game. The DMW is also attached to your characters emotional state: the happier/more excited you are, the more often you see matches on the wheels. Occasionally, when you see a match, you are also treated to little video segments that further show the relationships between the characters. These moments were some of my favorite in the game and actually explain some attacks and relationships in a surprisingly effective way.

The game is fast paced due to the strong game mechanic, and while all the encounters are random (to an extent, as there are noticeable points where you know certain encounters are supposed to happen), they never become annoyingly common. Because much of your Materia and items come from these encounters, you generally have no complaints when a fight is triggered. The fact that transitioning into and completing battles is so quick means you have a system that is fun and painless to play.