Final Fantasy VII experiences a strange impersonation. The ongoing remake boldly alters the original canon, while spin-offs like the 2006 PlayStation 2 game Dirge of Cerberus are slotted in for bigger roles in the main story. And then there are new spin-offs, like First Soldier, the online mobile battle royale that’s shutting down early next year, and also plans for another remake called Ever Crisis, a mobile game that’ll reexamine the Final Fantasy VII timeline becomes. With all that swirling around on the Lifestream, Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII Reunion emerges as a surprisingly faithful remake of the 2007 PSP game, cleverly focusing its changes on gameplay while keeping the story intact – warts and all.
Crisis Core is set before the events of Final Fantasy VII and follows the story of First Class Soldier Zack Fair. For those who first entered Midgar with Final Fantasy VII Remake, Zack’s story is a crucial element of Cloud and Sephiroth’s relationship, and playing Crisis Core both illuminates and obscures Zack’s surprise appearance at the end of Remake. As someone whose main interaction was with the universe of Final Fantasy VII Remake, I’m grateful to learn who Zack is and what he’s up to before future posts.
However, learning this history is often a chore. Crisis Core has a fantastic ending that leads into Final Fantasy VII in an exciting way, but the journey to that final cutscene feels, perhaps unsurprisingly, like a 2007 game. The updated voiceovers are good, but the presentation is stilted and slow. I wish I could see double-speed cutscenes as characters awkwardly switch into different animations during grueling dialogue pauses. The cadence of the conversations is rough, but the new graphics are great, almost bringing them to the quality of Remake.
This difficult cadence extends to overall pacing, as cutscenes often feel interrupted by fast-paced combat scenarios, or a series of combat scenarios are broken up by a slow cutscene. Neither leads into the other adequately, giving the whole game a start-and-stop feel.
However, the star of Reunion is the combat scenarios, which have intelligently received the most attention. Hitting monsters with your sword, performing magic attacks, and summoning special abilities is flashy and smooth. It lacks the impressive versatility and variety of Remake’s excellent combat, but it looks close enough that you could assume they’re similar at a glance.
The Digital Mind Wave (DMW) is Crisis Core’s main differentiator, which randomly rewards you with powerful attacks or temporary upgrades based on a slot machine that constantly runs in the corner of the screen and features characters you met throughout the story . The advantage of the DMW is that you sometimes get access to powerful attacks when you need them most. The downside is that it’s completely random, so there’s no way to use it tactically. If I was fighting a boss or a powerful enemy, I’d just repeat the fight until I happened to get a chance to summon the Fire Demon Ifrit or a similar attack, which isn’t a satisfying way to approach an encounter.
For the ongoing review of Final Fantasy VII, which Square Enix has officially dubbed the Compilation of Final Fantasy VII, Crisis Core feels like required reading. Its place in the larger story is important and will likely become more important in the future, but moving through these moments in history feels like a school assignment at times. Reunion is a well-crafted remake of the 2007 game, offering enjoyable combat alongside a stilted story with an interesting and narratively important ending. If you’re planning to start or continue the Final Fantasy VII Remake journey, do your homework.