Crisis Core -Final Fantasy VII- Reunion

God, Rebirth looks so good! Can we just skip to 2024 already?

Final Fantasy VII is basically it’s own series at this point, completely separate from the rest of FF. What other entry has this many spin-offs, remakes, prequels, mobile games, anime OVAs, and even a movie? It’s no wonder people who don’t like VII give it so much crap; it’s the FF equivalent of the spoilt child in the family!

Maybe they wouldn’t be so bitter if they knew just how mediocre and/or bad most of said extended media was. Luckily, we’re talking about one of the (mostly) good ones today: Crisis Core!

Our story stars Zack Fair, SOLDIER 2nd class. Near the end of the Wutai War, Zack’s mentor Angeal and 1st class SOLDIER Genisis disappear. Worse, a series of monsters resembling the two begin to appear. Now it’s up to Zack to figure out what’s going on and stop them.

This story is… just okay. It’s got some really dumb scenes, poorly written characters, and truly awful dialogue. But as a prequel/pseudo-reimagining of Final Fantasy VII, it still has some strong moments to make it worth playing.

Let’s start with the good. Zack is one of the greatest characters in any Final Fantasy game and makes for an incredible leading man. He’s basically a nice, normal, and somewhat goofy guy. He’s effortlessly likable and charismatic, and he carries an energy into every single scene that is infectious. Plus, him being so done with everyone’s anime bullshit is the funniest shit I’ve ever seen!

There are plenty of scenes that make for really nice FFVII fan service. Zack meeting Cloud is a genuinely incredibly well-written scene (“Me? Gongaga!”), giving us one of the most natural and believable starts to a friendship I’ve ever seen in an FF game. Zack and Aerith have lots of cute chemistry in their scenes. We even get to see Sephiroth before he lost his mind, and he’s super cool!

Finally, there’s the ending. For all the faults in the rest of the narrative, this ending is legitimately incredible. It’s a huge emotional gut punch that actually made me cry! Well done, Crisis Core, you stuck the landing!

Now, the bad. Starting with our main villain: Genisis. He is, without exaggeration, one of the worst villains I’ve ever seen in any video game. All he does is spout meaningless poetry and do evil things… just because. He feels like a self-insert character written by the edgiest middle-school Final Fantasy fan ever.

So… me back in middle-school.

The actual plot is complete nonsense. Things just happen with no rhyme or reason. Character motivations change from scene to scene and make absolutely no sense. It gets even worse when all the original stuff tries to stuff itself into scenes from the original Final Fantasy VII. The whole thing reads less like an addition to that narrative and more like, again: fan fiction.

Moving on to the presentation, this game’s been updated to look pretty good! The environments are all highly detailed and interesting, it runs at a smooth framerate consistently, and the updated character models all look really good! For a remastered PSP game, it looks great!

That said, it still feels like a PSP game. Namely because the camera is really close to our main character at all times. It’s mostly fine, but it can be a little claustrophobic at times.

As for the music, it’s really good. It goes for a more modern rock aesthetic than the usual FFVII fare. Most of the tracks are forgettable, but there are a few bangers in there. ‘The Price of Freedom’ in particular is really strong! We even get one of the versions of ‘One-Winged Angel’ of all time.

But what about the actual game? Much like Remake, Crisis Core is an action RPG. You’ll be dodging and mashing the attack button in-between casting spells until all the enemies are dead. Rinse and repeat until the next boss fight and the next mission, wherein you’ll do it all again. It’s hardly a complex action game.

Minus the slot machine. In the corner of one screen, there’s a little machine with different numbers and character portraits. Match three character faces and you can unleash a unique super attack or a Summon. Match certain numbers and you can level up Zack, your materia, or other things. There’s some complexity to the system, but you don’t need to worry about it. Just let it do its thing and focus on combat.

No, no, no. The real complexity comes from the Materia Fusion system. To boil it down to its utmost simplicity: you can combine materia and items to make stronger materia and make Zack stronger. There’s a lot more going on mechanically than that, but that’s the general gist of it.

This system is kinda fun to play around with. If nothing else, it’s satisfying to create super strong materia you’re not supposed to have yet and split the game wide open. With a bit of experimentation, you can make some really unique and interesting builds.

The side content is really boring. Every single mission boils down to the same thing. Go through hallways, find all the chests, kill the monster. Rinse and repeat THREE HUNDRED TIMES and you’re done! Some of them have little narratives tied to them, others don’t. They’re kinda fun at first but they get old real quick.

And you need to do them. Remember: this is an RPG. If you’re numbers ain’t high enough, you’re not beating it. Have fun grinding!

Playing this portably (like on the original PSP, the Switch port, or on a Steam Deck) would actually help alleviate this problem. Just do a few missions while on a plane or a bus to pass the time. But when you’re sat at your desk playing the game for the sake of playing a game? It’s a bit less tolerable.

Even still, Crisis Core Reunion is a solid game. It’s far from perfect, but there’s enough good there to make it worth at least trying out. If nothing else, you can experience the wonderful joy that is Zack Fair.

See y’all in February for Rebirth!