This review contains spoilers
I really tried to like Crisis Core but even with its Reunion facelift, it's just... not very good in the simplest of terms.
There are a few good elements here. For one, the combat, which was pretty clearly inspired by FF7 Remake, felt fun and satisfying - easily my favorite part of the whole game. I'm also glad they expanded on what led to Sephiroth's descent to madness, something I felt was a bit lacking in the OG FF7.
All of that, however, is hampered by a completely nonsensical plot that leaves you wondering what Tetsuya Nomura was on while writing this and where you can get some. In addition, dialogue is stiff and awkward, even by late-2000s PSP title standards, and the fairly easy difficulty is made laughable in the endgame thanks to the insane stat boosts that are easily obtained through Materia Fusion.
By FAR the worst aspect, however, is the repetitive, unrewarding, and frankly boring Missions. Almost all of them follow the same monotonous design structure of being dropped in a small dungeon (of which there are only around 10 different environments to cover 300 missions, which in itself becomes repetitive) with chests dotted around the map and a boss to kill. Thankfully, you only have to complete around 20% of these to keep up with the game's power curve.
There are a few good elements here. For one, the combat, which was pretty clearly inspired by FF7 Remake, felt fun and satisfying - easily my favorite part of the whole game. I'm also glad they expanded on what led to Sephiroth's descent to madness, something I felt was a bit lacking in the OG FF7.
All of that, however, is hampered by a completely nonsensical plot that leaves you wondering what Tetsuya Nomura was on while writing this and where you can get some. In addition, dialogue is stiff and awkward, even by late-2000s PSP title standards, and the fairly easy difficulty is made laughable in the endgame thanks to the insane stat boosts that are easily obtained through Materia Fusion.
By FAR the worst aspect, however, is the repetitive, unrewarding, and frankly boring Missions. Almost all of them follow the same monotonous design structure of being dropped in a small dungeon (of which there are only around 10 different environments to cover 300 missions, which in itself becomes repetitive) with chests dotted around the map and a boss to kill. Thankfully, you only have to complete around 20% of these to keep up with the game's power curve.