"Even if the morrow is barren of promises,
Nothing shall forestall my return,
To become the dew that quenches the land,
To spare the sands, the seas, the skies,
I offer thee this silent sacrifice."

The first thing to mention regarding Crisis Core Reunion is that it is a remaster (arguably a remake considering the game was moved to Unreal Engine 4 & some details like the Buster Sword were changed to fit with Final Fantasy VII Remake) of a game that was made for the PSP (and was initially conceived as a pre-smartphones mobile game before being moved to PSP; also that’s PSP as in PlayStation Portable, not the PlayStation Portal). So there are certain things about this game’s design & structure that, while they make sense on a handheld like the PSP (or the Nintendo Switch & Steam Deck I imagine), are at least a little more questionable on a home console like the PlayStation 5 that I played this remaster on.

That structure is a bit of a sticking point for me. Crisis Core has a small selection of main story chapters (11 in total if you include the unnumbered prologue) & a lot of side missions. This leads to the game being pretty short if you rush the main story and only do a few side missions (it took me about 12 ½ hours to finish it). The game was released at a bit of a budget price, though, so that helps a bit.

On a related note, the gameplay. Crisis Core was originally controlled in a manner similar to the Kingdom Hearts games where the game is technically Action-Combat, but in reality, you still mash on options in a menu. Not so with Reunion. This is real action combat… although it’s still not great. There’s some stuff ported over from FFVII Remake, but the end result is still just decent. Especially in comparison to something like FFVII Remake or Final Fantasy XVI. Although the boss fights can still be pretty engaging, especially towards the end. Doesn’t stop standard encounters from getting old after a while though… Not a fan of the randomness of the Digital Mind Wave system & how it overrides Limit Breaks though.

Speaking of things changed for Reunion, let’s talk about the graphics. The game looks pretty decent on PS5, but it’s pretty obvious that the areas that look the most impressive (that being those set in Midgar) were mostly reused from FFVII Remake. Meanwhile, some of the new areas made for this remaster… don’t look too good for a game running in Unreal Engine 4…

Now, for some rapid-fire thoughts before I talk about the story:

The music, composed primarily by Takeharu Ishimoto, is pretty great. It mostly leans on guitars, but there’s some piano & orchestral music there too (plus a lyrical song in the form of Aya’s “Why” plays over the ending).
The CG cutscenes, which have been left untouched aside from changing the Buster Sword model to reflect the in-game model & some AI upscaling being applied, are fine… but you can definitely tell that they were not originally intended to be seen on a 4K television as (even with the AI upscaling) they look kind of low-res and… off. It’s not a deal breaker or experience ruining, but it can be distracting at times.
Much like FFVII Remake, Crisis Core Reunion recasts the entire English voice cast (some of which, like the VAs for Zack, Cloud & Sephiroth, are the same VAs that are voicing them in the FFVII Remake trilogy) while keeping pretty much the same Japanese cast as the original PSP game. Personally, I found the English voice acting to be decent, but it’s far from the gold standard set by other Japanese games like the Creative Business Unit III Final Fantasy games (XIV & XVI).

Now that all of that’s out of the way, let’s talk about what’s, in my opinion, the strongest aspect of Crisis Core: the story. While this game’s narrative isn’t perfect & the storytelling feels held back by the limitations of the hardware it was originally designed for, it’s still a pretty good prequel story to FFVII. Like any prequel, there are some retcons here (ex: Pretty much everything relating to Genesis), but Zack’s journey makes the whole affair worthwhile and I was a sobbing wreck by the time the end credits rolled thanks to the amazing ending.

Conclusion:

Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII - Reunion is a pretty solid remaster of an overall decent game. The story is good & makes the whole experience worthwhile, even if the combat outside of boss fights gets old rather quickly & the myriad of side missions reminds you this was originally intended as a handheld game. I’d recommend playing it if you like Final Fantasy VII and/or Final Fantasy VII Remake and want to learn more about the game’s story and world, but if you aren’t a fan of Final Fantasy VII… I’d suggest starting with the original or Remake first and then circling back to Crisis Core later.

Ratings:

Creative score (story, gameplay, voice acting, art direction): 7.5/10

Technical score (graphics, audio, performance)): 7.5/10

Business Practices score: 6/10 (nothing downright offensive, but nothing special either)

Overall score (my thoughts on a game’s overall quality, does not consider the business practices unless they are detrimental to the experience): 7.5/10

Crisis Core Final Fantasy VII Reunion es una cuidada remasterización del juego de PSP, que hizo de precuela del histórico Final Fantasy VII. En cuanto al trabajo de remasterización no hay absolutamente nada que reprochar, gráficamente está muy mejorado y se han añadido detalles tanto gráficos como jugables que hacen la experiencia mucho más accesible y modernizada. En cambio, se nota que el juego tiene sus años, principalmente en un apartado de diseño de niveles que es deficiente. Además, las misiones secundarias me han parecido muy aburridas y no me han alentado a seguir haciéndolas. A su vez, la jugabilidad se ve perjudicada debido al importante papel que el azar desempeña en los combates, siendo el sistema OMD un factor que empeora la experiencia al jugar. A pesar de ello debo comentar que la jugabilidad es divertida y tiene varias opciones para personalizar tu equipo y moldearlo a tu gusto. El punto más fuerte del juego es sin duda su historia, con un Zack Fair que se roba el protagonismo sobre personajes legendarios como Cloud o Sefirot. La trama es interesante y a mí parecer básica para la comprensión del argumento principal de Final Fantasy VII. También debo comentar que la banda sonora es buena pero me ha dejado un poco frío al no poder evitar su comparación con la de Final Fantasy VII. Me ha durado unas 11 horas. Como conclusión, Crisis Core Final Fantasy VII Reunion es una gran remasterización de un juego anticuado y mejorable y lo recomiendo a quienes quieran entender toda la trama de Final Fantasy VII. 7,2/10 (12/2023)

Really wanted to play Crisis Core cause I wanted Zack's story (FF7R SPOILER)(especially after the ending of FF7R), and Zack is cool! I like him, he is so genuine and warm. It is kind of mind boggling to Cloud and Sephiroth acting normal; Cloud is a little wimpy guy and Sephiroth is kind of a cool dad. And Zack/Aerith's relationship is so sweet, like goddamn it was cute as hell. I don't think I got the exact catharsis I wanted out of the end, but it was good. Still kind of confused about some of the Zack/Cloud stuff. ALSO the ending thing with the slot machine memories, COOL.

The gameplay seems like FF7R Lite, no command menu, just all shortcut buttons. Kind of braindead but fun, until you get to like 6 star missions, then the game asks a hell of a lot of you. I tried to get to the end game content, but I feel like its just bashing your head against shit until you finally get the end game build. I wanna see that shit, but its just too much effort for something that was probably designed for people to do on the train to work.