izigame.me

Crisis Core – Final Fantasy VII - Reunion is a prequel that’s 100% fanservice for those who already played Final Fantasy VII. But even while the game received a substantial visual upgrade and some welcome gameplay additions, some weaknesses remain
Did you know that “Cthulhu Saves the World: Super Hyper Enhanced Championship Edition Alpha Diamond DX Plus Alpha FES HD – Premium Enhanced Game of the Year Collector’s Edition (without Avatars!)” holds the world record for the longest videogame title in the English language? Surprise! That’s only slightly longer than “Crisis Core – Final Fantasy VII – Reunion”, even though I could swear that this is already one of the longest videogame titles I ever encountered. Honestly, even its abbreviation, CCFFVIIR is quite a mouthful. But hey, it’s a Square Enix game, they simply got a hand for great videogame titles, right? Just remember the likes of “NieR Replicant ver.1.22474487139...” or “Kingdom Hearts HD 2.8 Final Chapter Prologue” and- well, you get the idea. Let’s move on.
Crisis Core is a prequel to 1997’s Final VII, even though it released on the PlayStation Portable ten years later in 2007. Crisis Core Reunion is a high-definition remaster of said PSP-game, offering remade HD visuals, a re-arranged soundtrack and even a re-recorded dub with new voice actors in order to get Crisis Core on a similar (technical) level to the FFVII Remake. There are a few other adjustments as well, an updated UI for example, but as I never played the original PSP game I’m unable to tell you about those – which is why I linked a Wiki article instead.
Anyway, when it comes to prequels, there are basically two types: those who work just as well for people who never experienced the sequel and those who were made for people already familiar with the world, characters, etc. Crisis Core Reunion is part of the latter and should only really be played by those already familiar with Final Fantasy VII. I would like to say that this is only because Crisis Core Reunion doesn’t really explain many things – but it’s also because the story of the game is only good during the parts where it actually re-enacts part of Final Fantasy VII. More on that later.
First of, let’s talk gameplay. The game offers two difficulty modes, “normal” and “hard”. The difficulty can be changed at any time (nice!) and if you want to receive an achievement for beating the game on “hard”, you’ll only need to beat the final boss on that difficulty. “Hard mode” basically means that enemies deal more damage and have more health but there are no additional rewards or secret cutscenes or the like.
The combat of Crisis Core Reunion features a standard action combat system: One button to attack with your sword, one for dodging and one for blocking attacks, one for using items. You can also use Materia in order to cast magic spells or perform special moves, though both use either magic or ability points. Fighting itself feels nice and responsive, although the high enemy encounter rate in the game made me flee some of them instead. What makes the combat stand apart is the DMW system – basically a slot machine that continuously runs during combat. Depending on the results, you’ll get to perform special attacks, summons or get various buffs. Even upgrading your Materia or levelling up your character is tied to certain slot outcomes.
The DMW system caused some divisive reception even back in the day and it’s not hard to see why – depending on your slot luck, you might breeze through a battle with ease or have a hard time. Not to mention that also tying spell and character upgrades to the slot system makes things even worse. However, the slot system can also be responsible for great clutch victories – during one particular battle, I only survived an enemy’s attack because the slots raised my maximum health just in time.
And while I’m personally not a big fan of the DMW system due to its random nature, it shouldn’t impact your playthrough if you’re just going for a story clear on “normal” difficulty. Why? Because the battles fought as part of the story are quite easy. I had no trouble even with the bosses and ended the game with an abundance of health items left. I went for a simple magic build and basically just spammed magic each battle – worked just fine. Had to switch Materia a few times (there’s a crafting/fusion system) but never had to grind for the spells I wanted (which were basically the upgraded version of all basic elemental spells). And this was just mostly focusing on the story, with only few side-quests completed.
Speaking of side-quests, Crisis Core Reunion features a whopping 300 (!!) of them. An impressive number – until you find out that these are basically 300 “kill this monster” quests in the same few maps. They’re getting extremely dull after just finishing a few of them and that’s why I quickly decided not to bother with them. Thankfully the game tells you what missions net actually useful rewards like new summons or shops, so I simply went for those.
This might also be a good point to mention that while Crisis Core Reunion looks and sounds like a modern game, it’s really still a PSP game at heart. Areas are extremely small and you’ll encounter plenty of loading screens just travelling through a location – they’re extremely short but it’s noticeable that the game focusses on replacing textures, etc. instead of offering bigger upgrades like connected areas or new character animations. The game also plays a voice line every time a battle starts and ends – which is quite often and gets annoying really quick.
Speaking of annoying, lets talk about the story of Crisis Core Reunion. While the gameplay is serviceable and even featuring some minigames as minor side distractions, it’s the prequel story that’s really the main selling point here. Unfortunately, it’s also the worst part of this game.
As I mentioned earlier, the story of Crisis Core Reunion only really works once it’s re-enacting moments from Final Fantasy VII. I do like the main character, Zack, though admittedly there isn’t much depth to him besides being a somewhat airheaded “I want to do good!” hero-type. And the final moments of Crisis Core Reunion are still enormously powerful, making a lasting impression. But besides that? Oh boy, what a mess.
I honestly don’t even know where to begin. The pacing of the game is awful, long stretches of nothing are followed by abrupt developments happening off-screen. The story is full of gaping holes that were never filled. Character motivations are questionable or simply not even explained. One character boosts about their “secret name”, which still hasn’t been revealed since then. The antagonist of the game is a mess, constantly quoting an in-game poem as if that would somehow give him character. Original characters disappear for huge chunks of the story only to show up in a hamfisted kind of way (& with retcons). The more I think about the story, the more confusing and non-sensical it is. It starts off okayish but quickly feels like some thrown-together fanfiction.
That said, the game’s length isn’t too long (took me 15h to beat the main story and some side quests) and the parts where Crisis Core Reunion is adapting Final Fantasy VII are okay. So combined with the decent gameplay, Crisis Core Reunion remains a recommendation for all fans of Final Fantasy VII interested in more. Especially the last moments of the game are worth the experience and even more so in this visually impressive overhaul of a 2007 PSP game. I do recommend waiting for a sale, however.