Crisis Core: Final Fantasy 7 Reunion puts players in the very unusual position of working alongside the evil Shinra Electric Power Company, rather than working against them, which is what fans of Final Fantasy 7 will be much more used to. Protagonist Zack Fair is part of SOLDIER, a military faction on Shinra's payroll, and Crisis Core: Final Fantasy 7 Reunion begins right in the middle of some of his training at Shinra HQ. While the headquarters serves as a hub area, plenty of other familiar Shinra locations are visited throughout the game, including the imposing mako reactors, which are towering power plants that Shinra uses to dominate the world's power supply.
While it is known predominantly as an electricity supplier, it's no secret that this barely scratches the surface of Shinra's overarching ambition. Dabbling in everything from space travel to top-secret scientific experiments, Shinra also possesses a large military army made up of troops, a special investigative unit known as the Turks, and a sophisticated, intelligent, and genetically-modified squad of fighters known as SOLDIER. In order to finance all of this, Shinra uses huge mako reactors, situated all over the world, to harvest mako supplies, which is the world's primary source of energy.
Mako Reactors Serve a Key Purpose
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Within Final Fantasy 7's universe, the world of Gaia has an ethereal substance flowing under its surface, known as the Lifestream. Sometime before events in FF7, Shinra discovered that this Lifestream could be extracted from the Earth and transformed into energy, known as mako. In order to accomplish this, Shinra built several huge mako reactors all over the world, giving it unprecedented access to the most efficient source of energy on the earth.
The bulk of these reactors are situated in the City of Midgar, which serves as the base of Shinra's operations. A total of nine reactors can be found here, eight of which are situated in individual sectors, and the other deep underground. Other locations known to have a reactor include Gongaga, Fort Condor, and Nibel, while there is even an underwater reactor located in Junon. Wherever these reactors sprout up, plants and wildlife quickly die, causing several environmentalists to rise up and take action. The eco-terrorist group AVALANCHE is the most notable of these groups.
Gamers who have played through either the original Final Fantasy 7 or its 2020 Remake will recall traveling inside a couple of these reactors while Cloud is working with AVALANCHE, and taking them down from the inside. Large, steel mazes full of bridges and pipes, traversing these reactors is an extremely dangerous activity. Making matters worse is the fact that Shinra deploys several high-tech security measures when intruders are detected, and Cloud and his friends have had to battle some imposing enemies within these structures including the tutorial Scorpion boss, as well as the imposing Airbuster boss.
These mako reactors are often seen as a symbol of Shinra's dominance over the world. The mako drawn from them is used for a variety of different things, including making materia, and also in some of Shinra's mysterious experiments. AVALANCHE's actions in blowing up two of the reactors has dire consequences for some of Midgar's population living in the immediate vicinity. However, blowing up or shutting down these reactors is generally seen as a necessary step in order to wrestle control of the planet back from Shinra.
Crisis Core Final Fantasy 7 Reunion is out now for Nintendo Switch, PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
