At its heart, Crisis Core: Final Fantasy 7 Reunion tells a compelling story about friendship, redemption, and hope. It's a story that begins during the climax of a conflict between Wutai, a powerful and independent nation, and Shinra Electric Power Company, a global corporation whose primary purpose is to make electricity and energy readily available across the globe. Shinra also harbors aspirations of world domination, and has its fingers in several pies such as experimental genetic mutations, space travel, and military might through a combination of an elite group known as SOLDIERs, and an investigative unit called the Turks. Crisis Core: Final Fantasy 7 Reunion puts players in the shoes of Zack Fair, a SOLDIER who is aligned with Shinra, and one of his first missions is to put an end to the long conflict with Wutai.
Wutai is probably best known to fans of Final Fantasy as the birthplace of Yuffie Kisaragi, an optional party member from the original Final Fantasy 7 game who plays a more prominent role in the Final Fantasy 7 Remake DLC INTERmission, where she serves as the main protagonist. Her actions throughout the DLC are a direct result of her hometown's conflict with Shinra, and her quest for Materia is driven by her hatred for what the power company has done to her beloved Wutai.
Shinra's Conflict With Wutai Was Long and Arduous
Throughout the entire timeline of Final Fantasy 7 and its extended universe, Shinra is portrayed as a stereotypically evil megacorporation. Power-hungry and relentlessly ambitious, Shinra attempts to exert its influence over all the world's matters, both financially and politically. The initial conflict with Wutai came about when Shinra was looking to extend the reach of its Mako energy reactors, by building a brand-new one within Wutai's territory. Wutai's leader and Yuffie's father, Godo Kisaragi, fiercely opposed this, refusing to bow to Shinra's authority, thus starting a long and bloody conflict.
Shinra's monopoly over much of the world's technology and resources saw it emerge as the superior entity, although both sides suffered many casualties. With the elite military might of SOLDIER in its corner, Shinra won many victories, and in particular, one of the company's genetically-enhanced troops made quite the name for himself as a war hero, inspiring many youngsters around the world to take up arms and join Shinra in the fight. That SOLDIER's name was Sephiroth.
With Wutai's forces waning, Shinra requested that the young SOLDIER recruit Zack Fair quell the rest of the resistance, who were holed up in a fortress known as Fort Tamblin. Zack was all too happy to oblige, eager to show his superiors what he was capable of. He effortlessly dealt with the remaining threat with the help of his mentor, a more experienced SOLDIER named Angeal. With this final resistance defeated, Godo Kisaragi finally surrendered to Shinra, agreeing to ban Materia as a gesture of submission, much to the disdain of his daughter Yuffie.
The towering Mako reactors visible from Midgar's slums were a symbol of Shinra's power, and their defeat of Wutai put any lingering questions about their dominance to rest. Shinra stood unopposed at that point until events in Final Fantasy 7 bring them into conflict with AVALANCHE, an eco-terrorist group looking to save the world from mako energy and Shinra itself. The group could count Barrett, Tifa and eventually even Cloud among its members, and it won several small victories over Shinra, destroying some of its huge mako reactors. Sephiroth's eventual descent into madness and the murder of President Shinra triggered the beginning of the end for the megacorporation, and the Shinra Electric Power Company was eventually overthrown.
Final Fantasy 7 Crisis Core Reunion is available now for Nintendo Switch, PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
