Crisis Core: Final Fantasy 7 Reunion remasters a game that launched in 2008 in North America for the PSP. The original, and this remaster, function as a prequel story to the original events of Final Fantasy 7 and technically is and isn't connected to the new remake universe.
Crisis Core: Final Fantasy 7 Reunion is about Zack Fair in his rise through the ranks of SOLDIER. He fights monsters for Shinra, in Shinra, and has his inner demons to fight as well on his way to becoming a hero. That’s the briefest synopsis imaginable for this dramatic prequel in one of the series’ most popular main entries. Let’s see how this remaster shapes up.
6 Best: A Nostalgic Cast Of Characters
One of the best things about the original release was getting to know the backstory for Zack. He was a mystery in Final Fantasy 7 with barely a presence. Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII Reunion helps fill in the gaps on not just him, but the war with Wutai, and how Shinra operates as an organization.
Familiar faces besides Zack have a good presence too like Tseng and other members of The Turks as well as Sephiroth. Even the ability to fight Summons is a cool character change from the main game. It’s a nostalgic trip that has some genuine surprise cameos as well which won’t be spoiled for those that never played the game originally on PSP.
5 Worst: A Slowdown With Cutscene Interruptions
It was great to play the original version on PSP since a lot of the game’s mechanics were designed around portability. The bite-sized missions, for example, could be tackled with quick minute spurts of game time which is how portable RPGs should be. The thing that held it back then is still an annoyance with this remaster.
The main missions are flooded with bad pacing. Players will fight a battle, walk a few steps to trigger a cutscene, and then the process repeats. A lot of the overall story is a bit vapid. It’s fun to see character interactions but the narrative has a lot of fat that could have been trimmed for a tighter experience.
4 Best: A Fun Action System
It could be said that Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII Reunion is based on the action system in the remake of Final Fantasy 7. However, the remake is more like it is based on this game as well as other recent action entries in the series along with the wild spinoff that is Kingdom Hearts. It’s easy to see why the remake took inspiration from the original Crisis Core as it is a good combat system despite the overall hack-and-slash bit of it since Square, on PlayStation consoles, will be spammed a lot.
It’s not as fluid as an action game like Bayonetta 3, but it’s still enjoyable. The DMW, or the Digital Mind Wave, has its ups and downs as a gameplay mechanic. The cool part is getting boosts like infinite periods where using AP and MP are free, or special attacks akin to Limit Breaks.
3 Worst: How You Level Up
The bad part of the DMW is that it controls when players level up. It’s one of the most backward leveling-up systems in an RPG and Square Enix could have fixed it with this remaster. Zack will gain experience the more he fights in battle, which is like a traditional RPG.
However, this experience bar is invisible to players. Once a threshold is reached, they will have the random chance to score a 777 in battle to thus level Zack up. It can make grinding, which is almost mandatory, a weird guessing game and that is never fun.
2 Best: A More Diverse Materia System
The Materia system in Final Fantasy 7 was like a more streamlined version of the Magicite system from Final Fantasy 6. It was a good system that was improved upon in Crisis Core thanks to Materia Fusion. In Chapter 3, once Zack becomes a 1st Class member of SOLDIER, he will gain access to the Materia Fusion Lab.
Fire and Blizzard Materia can make Thunder Materia, as a very basic example. Playing around with combinations is one of the most addictive parts of the original experience. It’s another reason why the combat system is so fondly remembered despite the one-button mashing of Square for basic attacks.
1 Worst: Not Much Was Added Past The Graphics
The graphics in Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII Reunion are close to the remake of Final Fantasy 7 and they look amazing compared to the PSP models. That’s pretty much the only thing Square Enix did for this remaster which is indeed huge. However, the game could have used more bells and whistles to justify its re-release. The CG cutscenes, for example, are grainy and blurry because they were not touched up.
They don’t have the same impact as they once did since the in-game graphics now look better in many regards. New missions or a multiplayer mode could have gone a long way along with an Easy mode for RPG beginners. A tweak to the leveling-up system almost feels like a given but they biffed that aspect. Something to tie the game into the remake trilogy would have been good too. Overall, it is a good remaster but it could have been so much more.
Crisis Core: Final Fantasy 7 Reunion was released on December 13, 2022, and is available on PC, PS4, PS5, Switch, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X.