Those soft, eerie strings. Jingle carillon pattern. The camera pans to reveal the forbidding Shinra Corporation building towering over the polluted slums of Midgar, illuminated in sickly green. The protagonist arrives by train, and another Final Fantasy VII adventure begins.
It’s a familiar opening for Final Fantasy 7 fans, especially those coming to the heart of Crisis for the first time, who have yet to experience the PSP prequel to Square Enix’s most popular and illustrious franchise, but are eager to explore the world again .
In the two-and-a-half years since its release on PlayStation, Final Fantasy VII has gained a huge following. That means now, there’s quite a bit of heavy lifting for the Crisis Core Final Fantasy 7 reunion (what a mouthful) as 2022 gets a remake of the 2007 prequel and the 1997 game gets its famous remake in 2020 . Look for updated original PSP games. It’s for fans of the original JRPG looking for an extended story. It’s for Remake fans looking to experience the game’s roots – and maybe even hint at what’s to come.
I can only speak for two of the three, haven’t played Crisis Core before, but I, like many fans, are delighted that Square Enix is finally making this game more widely available – and I can safely say that fans won’t Will want to miss this. Crisis Core Final Fantasy 7 Reunion is a bit of a frivolous game, but it’s also a fun game. Not only revived the PSP prequel, but legitimized its existence as Final Fantasy 7 and remade it with newfound cohesion.
To give newcomers some context, Final Fantasy VII is a story about an eco-warrior who stops a corrupt corporation from destroying the planet, but its second half focuses on the twisted memories of the main character, Cloud. Crisis Core delves into the game’s turning point (no, it’s not That
Cloud does appear in Crisis Core, but Zack Fair is the protagonist – a brave, eager, puppy-like member of Shinra’s special forces SOLDIER who has a strange urge to crouch when he’s stressed. Over the course of the episode, we also learn more about Shinra’s inner corruption and the downfall of rival Sephiroth.
It’s pure fan service, but along the way, it flashes back from the original and weaves it into a new story: introducing new characters, reintroducing old ones, and trying to make sense of cloning, weird experiments, and theatrical productions. Some bullshit. While initially funny and full of dramatic irony, none of it was necessary. Zack’s story doesn’t need to be told in detail, and the other characters here have little influence on the overall Final Fantasy VII saga. Zack is a likable character, but the game expands on things that never really needed to be expanded—if anything, Crisis Core overinterprets the original plot to the point of belittling it and ruining its subtle ambiguity.
That’s not to say that Crisis Core isn’t fun, and anyone who’s played the PSP game will recognize the plot flaws. If you put that aside, Square Enix has come out with a sensitively modernized remake that, story aside, is a huge improvement over the original. This feels like the ultimate way to experience Crisis Core.
Graphically it’s a huge improvement, with updated textures, a gorgeous lighting system, and character models consistent with the remake. It’s not quite up to that game’s standards–the animation is still a bit stiff, and the lip-syncing is noticeably wrong–but it’s clearly part of the same saga now. Menus, fonts, and UI were all taken from Remake, merging the games into a cohesive whole.
The overhauled combat system is also closer to a remake, given the fresh immediacy. Combat takes place in real time, and it’s especially satisfying when Zac parries attacks and ducks behind enemies to deliver critical strikes, so like the remake, combat feels fast and fluid rather than tedious, with no interruptions. For example, magic and ability shortcuts can now be assigned to the six buttons accessible from the left bumper. These correspond to collected materials – orbs associated with spells, special moves, and stat buffs – that can be easily swapped to customize Zack to your playstyle.
With use, the material upgrades to increase potency. It can then be fused together to form new ones – two maximized fire spells fused to form a more powerful Fira, and so on. This increased Zack’s flexibility, but it also quickly resulted in too many materials and not enough games to use them, since the Crisis Core only had a runtime of about 15 hours. Despite the customization, Zack is the only playable character and can become repetitive. It makes me wish another guy could stop the material gathering dust in a menu somewhere.
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Back to Basics’ most innovative combat feature: the Digital Thought Wave (DMW). It’s essentially a constantly spinning roulette wheel of fighting corners. Certain number combinations affect combat, from granting infinite mana for a short period of time, to upgrading Zac and the materials he equips. Summons and limit breaks are also tied to this system: the former is a welcome relief in combat, the latter has to do with Zac’s relationships with certain key characters. These actions are now triggered by the player rather than automatically, allowing for increased control over randomness.
The DMW makes up for the lack of party members and even includes additional cutscenes that play into the overarching theme of memory. It also makes combat ridiculously easy and makes bosses insignificant–I often found myself sending powerful attacks indefinitely just because of a lucky roulette wheel. However, the randomness definitely keeps the fights from getting too stale by putting a spin on them (sorry).
There are other improvements in this remaster, especially in terms of sound. All cutscenes are now fully dubbed: it has a cinematic feel and demonstrates Square Enix’s high production values. Additionally, the sound now matches Remake, further reflecting the game’s presentation, and the soundtrack has been rearranged to modern standards. As expected, the well-chosen soundtrack is lovely, from the evocative opening to the heavy rock of the battle.
Despite the changes, Reunion still can’t hide the fact that it’s a PSP game that’s showing its age — and I don’t mean flip phones. The gameplay is linear, the world is made up of multiple small areas with little room for exploration, and it’s mostly focused on combat rather than puzzle solving. That said, the excessive focus on one character and smaller-scale story makes for a refreshing change from operatic JRPG grandeur.
The Hangover for PSP continues with hundreds of additional side quests, accessible at save points. These are tiny, bite-sized quests that require navigating a maze of simply repetitive assets–environments, enemies, and bosses. They can get tiresome quickly, but are essential for leveling up and collecting sturdy materials.
On the other hand, these missions are often triggered by receiving emails that provide additional insight into the world and highlight Zac’s work as a hired soldier. What’s more, many of the quests take place outside the walls of Midgar, giving you a glimpse into what Cloud’s next adventure has to offer. Note that Crisis Core doesn’t have the typical new game plus mode – experience and materials are saved after points are saved, but side quest progress is lost.
What remains to be seen is how important Crisis Core will be to the plot of Final Fantasy VII Remake, as it returns in Part II Rebirth. The choice to remake the game at this point reintroduces Zack to a new audience, and, I suspect, does indicate that he will be even more important in the future. What does that mean in the context of Claude as an unreliable narrator, the subject of memory, a change to the original plot? It’s called rebirth after all. It’s certainly a tantalizing prospect.
Either way, despite the somewhat over-developed plot, Crisis Core Reunion isn’t just a quick escalation, but some fundamental improvements to the visuals, sound, and controls are implemented with care. Flawed, but still a joy to spend time with favorites Cloud, Aerith and Sephiroth again.
