Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII is a PSP exclusive spinoff from 2007 that's often remembered fondly through the tinted goggles of nostalgia. In truth, the original Crisis Core was a messy game when it first released, and it's only gotten worse with age. Much like Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children, the animated film that flanked it, Crisis Core was packed with cool ideas that appealed to fans of the original Final Fantasy VII — but its execution of these ideas was often misjudged.
For all its issues, though, it's easy enough to argue that Crisis Core deserves a second chance, especially now that we live in an age where Final Fantasy VII Remake is a reality. And so here we are, with Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII Reunion, an extensive remaster — not remake — of Zack Fair's angsty adventures through the ranks of Shinra's elite military force, SOLDIER.
Now, Square Enix has been hit and miss with its remasters in recent years. Final Fantasy XII: The Zodiac Age is probably one of the best remasters money can buy — but then you've got Chrono Cross: The Radical Dreamers Edition, which still runs like dog muck on PS4. Thankfully, Reunion is much more in line with the former. Overall, it's an immaculate graphical upgrade on the PSP original, boasting remade character models and environmental assets — while also sporting an overhauled user interface taken straight from Final Fantasy VII Remake.
The change in art direction might rub some fans the wrong way, however. 2007's Crisis Core had a character style reminiscent of Kingdom Hearts, with big shiny eyes and cartoonish facial animations. And while Reunion reuses most of those goofy (pun not intended) movements, the cast are much more 'realistic' in appearance — presumably in an attempt to make it look like the new Remake saga. For us, it works as intended, and Crisis Core now feels like it's part of Remake's ongoing world. But others may not feel the same.
At least you can't argue with the remaster's performance. It's an unwavering 60 frames-per-second at 4K resolution on PS5, and at times, it almost looks as good as Remake — especially when the sparks are flying during combat.
The only thing that lets Reunion down in terms of presentation is those aforementioned animations. In the game's more static dialogue scenes — of which there are many — these comically overdone animations can look downright stupid now that the character models are so much more realistic. There's definitely a noticeable disconnect between the game's old-school (and relatively cheap looking) in-game cutscenes, and how good the remaster looks as a whole.
But let's face it: Crisis Core has always been an incredibly dumb game. Even for a 2000s Japanese RPG, even for a Nomura-led Square Enix project, even for Final Fantasy at its most overdramatic, Crisis Core has some truly horrific writing. Tiny, tiny bits of the script have been altered in Reunion, but the point still stands. The storytelling frequently borders on nonsensical, and protagonist Zack is constantly left in the dark by his superiors, who just so happen to love speaking in hilariously overwrought riddles. If you're not familiar with the original release, you're in for a ride.
Is the game's jaw-droppingly awkward approach to plot delivery part of its charm, though? We're tempted to say yes. There is something endearing about just how stupid Crisis Core can be. It walks a very fine line between being actually crap and being so bad that it's entertaining. We've played this before and we know how it ends, but we still caught ourselves buying into Zack's struggles, and thinking "Sephiroth is so cool" every time he appeared on screen.
Much of what makes Crisis Core tick is basically fan service, but there's nothing necessarily wrong with that. The game goes out of its way to show you just how much of a badass Sephiroth and his SOLDIER friends are, while also providing hints of interesting backstories for many of Final Fantasy VII's personalities. Even if it is dumb, Crisis Core does, ultimately, help flesh out one of the most beloved worlds in gaming.
And there's no question that Reunion is the best way to experience it. Even if you're not on board with the new character models, or the redone voice acting (honestly, the new Zack is questionable at best), the numerous gameplay adjustments tip the scales beyond doubt.
By far the biggest improvements lie in the remaster's combat. Fights in the original were decidedly wonky affairs where the game couldn't quite decide whether it was an action title or a command-based battler. It certainly didn't come close to achieving the hybrid heaven of Remake's system, and so Reunion takes much needed cues from Cloud's most recent outing.
Zack is faster on his feet and his attacks are easier to combo. His dodge roll is more responsive and more evasive, and the result is what feels like a real action RPG that rewards proper timing and knowledge of your opponent's capabilities. It's a massive step up.
It's worth noting that you only play as Zack in Crisis Core. There are no party members, and so the trademark Materia system plays an important role in keeping things interesting. By completing side missions, you'll acquire a library of stat-boosting and ability-granting orbs, letting you customise Zack's loadout to suit the situation. Rewarding stuff, proving once again that Square struck gold with Materia in Final Fantasy VII.
But not all systems can be universally praised. Crisis Core's most divisive mechanic is the so-called Digital Mind Wave — or DMW for short. Essentially, it's a slot machine that sits in the top left corner of the screen during battles. It's always spinning, and when it hits lucky, you get access to buffs, special attacks, and summons. It's a weird thing, but now that combat has been overhauled for the better, the DMW isn't nearly as frustrating as it once was. With Zack capable of holding his own in tougher fights, you don't need to rely on lady luck to give you a necessary edge, which means that the DMW is now more of a fun extra — as it always should have been.
All of these combat improvements are key, because other areas of the experience are lacking to say the least. The game's environmental design was basic and boring in 2007, and that hasn't changed — even if the backdrops do look a lot better. Mission locations are just corridors filled with encounters, and depending on how deeply you dive into the side quests, you're going to be seeing those same corridors over and over and over again. Crisis Core can be a very repetitive game, and its portable origins become increasingly clear when you're churning through bite-sized optional content.
Conclusion
Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII Reunion is a top tier remaster of a flawed and often comically awkward spinoff. But for all of its angsty melodrama, the story of Zack Fair is an endearingly daft tale that only adds to the world of Final Fantasy VII. It's hard not to enjoy the blatant fan service and completely over-the-top cinematics, while the overhauled combat system is infinitely better than it once was. A worthy second chance.
Comments 41
Wasn’t expecting a review of this this morning but had a nice surprise when I loaded up Push Square. I’m thinking that a 7/10 for a remaster of a decent yet old PSP game is a more than adequate return tbh. I’ll be picking this up.
I will pick this up in time as a curiosity but my expectations are preeeeettty, pretty low. Pretty low.
I never played the original, so I’m morbidly curious. Probably will pick it up eventually after a discount.
can you change the English voice to Japanese??
If anyone's got any questions, you can @ me and I'll try to answer them.
I never played the original but got this pre-ordered and my expectations are to have a lot of fun!
Cool i will be getting crisis core final fantasy 7 the reunion later.i got to many games to play.my backlog of games is huge.word up son
I think for anyone that never got the chance to play this game, then this will be the version to get. I personally can't warrant going back and playing again, if they had done a complete remake, ala FF7, then it would be more worth it. But I can remember how cringy the dialogue was! Haha.
@ShogunRok can you change the English voice to Japanese??
@yeayeanaynay You can!
Like others have said, this will be my first time playing the game. Despite it's obvious quirks, I'm really looking forward to finally experiencing the game after loving Final Fantasy VII Remake (and again as Intergrade). Hopefully my pre-order arrives on release day.
My favourite Final Fantasy game of all time. Won’t be there at launch as it’ll be under the Xmas tree, but I’m glad more people will get to enjoy it.
I still have the UMD & this game is the sole reason I own 2 PSP’s😅
@colonelkilgore Agreed! Something fun to chew through over the hols, and while not breathtaking in scope or design, like some AAA titles, the lower price point and schlocky fun of it makes it quite appealing still. Never had a psp either, so defo looking forward to trying this.
@ShogunRok How long did the game take you to finish, including side content? And is the trophy list fairly straightforward, or requires some investment to get?
@Sam_ATLUS With a lot of the side content, it took me around 26 hours or so, if I remember my playtime clock correctly. You can spend much longer with it if you want to complete everything though, because quite a bit of grinding is required for the hardest optional missions. Could easily run you over 40 or 50 hours.
Trophy list is straightforward for the most part, but some can, annoyingly, be missed (and missed quite easily if you're not aware of them). Others require a bit of that endgame grinding, too. It can be an awkward list for sure.
@ShogunRok Cheers, good to know it's got a decent length, especially as this will be one of my games to play over the Christmas break
@KaijuKaiser Hard mode isn't that hard if you're already familiar with the game, but it can be quite tedious since enemies can have much meatier health bars.
Normal is fairly easy — especially if you know how to fuse good Materia early on — but it does get more challenging as the game goes on. Late game optional missions can be brutal, for example.
Good review! And honestly, while Crisis Core is a fantastic game, the score doesn't surprise me. It is still a old game after all.
>Some truly dreadful dialogue
Glad they didn't change that. While some if has and will always be awful, it still adds to the charm of the game.
I think I tried the original Crisis Core for about an hour a long, long time ago. I'll likely get this remaster to give the game a shot.
@KaijuKaiser Unfortunately I couldn't say, but I'd imagine you have to play the whole game on Hard. I don't think you can change the difficulty mid-game — you just choose between normal and hard at the start.
@ShogunRok Is there much need to pause during combat to use abilities from the menus? This is something I felt like I had to do too often in FF7R.
@ShogunRok Can you still skirt around the edge of an area to avoid encounters? Does Costly Punch still break the game?
@shake_zula You don't actually pause the combat in Crisis Core, all the commands are mapped to different buttons depending on your loadout. Sounds like good news for you!
@Melee_Ace Yes, you can (I remembered this was a thing about halfway through the game). And unfortunately I forgot all about Costly Punch being broken, I didn't really pay attention this time around.
Wouldn't be surprised if it's been adjusted, though. From what I could remember of the original, Reunion does tweak some of the game's balance in places — but I'm not sure to what extent.
@ShogunRok fantastic thanks, that was my only worry - preordering now
Everyone, I can confirm that Gongaga is still in the game. I repeat, gongaga is still in.
Put my pre-order in last week for a physical copy (PS5). I finished Callisto Protocol yesterday (which was great), so I'll probably go for the Platinum while I patiently wait for Crisis Core.
“New voice acting is questionable”
This just describes all JRPG English/American voice acting doesn’t it?
So as a major fan of the original, the only true negative is the new voice actors. I'm very excited.
I’ll definitely buy when it gets cheap!
Will be nice to play this again with a decent analogue stick 😅
But it's a complete remake that didn't take more then over a decade to be completed as great as FF7R looks the time it took really destroyed my hype for it and I just totally lost interest. The slots gameplay was something I really hated so much. Now Square Enix do this with Parasite Eve 2.
@Rob_230 That's a very good point, forgot all about the PSP's little nub thing.
This review sounds…ahem… fair. I’ll see myself out.
@ShogunRok that thing was a recipie for blisters - in my case at least. Worth it for the wonderful experiences mind 😄
@Rob_230 @ShogunRok That's how you can tell true classic PlayStation fans from the PS4 era posers. The true fans no longer have left thumb prints.
@NEStalgia 🤣🤣🤣 that explains why my phone doesnt recognise mine!!
@ShogunRok Call you tell us if the game has any new story cutscenes or a different/alternate ending?
I want to know if they directly connected it story wise to the FF7 Remake games.
I never even played this at the time despite Final Fantasy VII being one of my favourite games. I think I just like Final Fantasy VII as it is. The expanded universe is pretty rubbish, from what I've played/watched/cringed through.
This looks good for what it is & the FF7 fan in me can't skip this. I definitely want this on PS5, but I'm also interested in seeing how this game performs on the Switch.
My unpopular opinion, the original FF7 is boring with it's story alongside it's main character while Crisis Core is far superior.
Show Comments
Leave A Comment
Hold on there, you need to login to post a comment...