Game Review: CRISIS CORE: FINAL FANTASY VII REUINION

My journey with the world if Final Fantasy VII continues once more with a dive into the past events that serve as a fundamental back drop to the main storyline of Final Fantasy VII.  As noted in my original review of Final Fantasy VII: REMAKE; I never had any prior experience with this world or any world of Final Fantasy for that matter. I knew of the legendary reputation the title held but apart from that and a few characters, I was pretty much experiencing this story blind.  So imagine my surprise when (Spoilers ahead for the end of Final Fantasy VII: REMAKE) one of the final cutscenes which play in the game showcased a black-haired SOLDIER carrying Cloud to the outskirts of Midgard just before the credits rolled. I had no idea who this guy was, but I recognized the game was pivoting his appearance as some kind of major reveal.  After beating the game, I did some limited research and learned that this was none other than Zack Fair, another 1st class SOLDIER who is beloved by many Final Fantasy fans. Zack Fair was the protagonist of his very own prequel title for Final Fantasy VII labeled Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII.  Originally releasing as a standalone PlayStation Portable title, I resided myself into believing I’d likely never experience the story in the modern day; but it appears the popularity of the remake allowed Square Enix to justify a full-fledged remaster for modern day consoles.

Titled Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII Reunion, the titular remaster was released in 2022 across Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Windows, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S. It’s interesting to consider that this was the Final Fantasy VII game that Square Enix had no qualms about releasing across all consoles but were inclined to make the mainline remake titles exclusive to PlayStation specifically. I’ve never been a big fan of third-party exclusives mainly because you’re taking away a title to a large proportion of a potential audience all because a publisher wishes to lock it down to make their console more appealable. In any case, the Crisis Core remaster includes a number of notable improvements that aim to bring the sixteen-year-old game into the modern landscape of gaming.  Such features include full HD conversion of the initial SD graphics, along with new character models and voice acting and a revised combat system to make the game look and feel more in line with the latest run of Final Fantasy VII remakes.

Set seven years before the events of Final Fantasy VII, Crisis Core’s story follows Zack Fair, an intrepid rookie working his way through the ranks of SOLDIER, a military division of the reclusive corporation known as Shinra. Paired up with his mentor Angeal Hewley, the duo ventures out on combat missions to assist Shinra on their war-time effort against the rebel cell known as Wutai. As events unfold, Angeal goes AWOL from SOLDIER and Zack is ordered by Shinra to find him and another 1st class SOLDIER known as Genesis Rhapsodos. Accompanied by another division of Shinra known as the Turks, Zack and fellow SOLDIER Sephiroth soon learn that Angeal and Genesis have come to learn the dark truth of their origins as the hands of Shinra and have set out on a devoted mission to destroy the corporation and find a means to overcome their genetic degradation. Conflicted between his sense of duty and his fondness for his friend and mentor, Zack’s personal struggle serves as the heart of this story as he seeks to tread the fine line between SOLDIER and friend, with every step he takes bringing him closer to the tragedy that awaits him. 

The core quality of Crisis Core comes in the form of its narrative.  Zack is the central core of the story and I can fully understand why so many Final Fantasy fans love him.  His endearing personality comes out a lot in the cutscenes and while he may be a bit goofy at times, his courage and determination to do right by everyone shines brightly throughout the course of the game.  It’s a smart choice to make Zack such a positive personality when the narrative hits you considerably with a lot of sad and existential themes with regards to Angeal and Genesis.  The degradation both of these SOLDIERS face and the revelation behind their true origins makes them empathetic antagonists to face off against.  What I really liked about this story though it’s ability to set up key elements for Final Fantasy VII in a way that doesn’t feel shallow or derivative. Key characters like Sephiroth, Aerith and Cloud all play a part in Zack’s story and it’s through their relationships with him that we get to see the story beats that define them and lead them onto their collision course in the main game. Sephiroth is the major contender here too. In Final Fantasy VII: REMAKE, the game makes every effort to show why Cloud is scared of him to an almost debilitating level and with the extra context Reunion provides, it all clicks into place in such a smart and satisfying way.

I suppose it’s a conciliation that the story for this game is so well structured as I sadly cannot say the same for the games wider mechanical and gameplay offerings.  Let’s discuss the combat element of the gameplay firstly though, as that is probably the most redeemable element of the mechanical side of the game. As mentioned initially, Square Enix made an effort to revise the combat mechanics for Reunion to make it more in line with the remake’s gameplay offerings. Zack moves and fights in similar ways to Cloud, with his main attacks coming from his sword movements with dodge and guard abilities. When he's not swinging his sword, he also has the ability to utilize a number of Materia powers as his disposal to fight his enemies. There’s a wide variety of monsters and infantry you will come up against and they will have projected weaknesses which you will need to match up against with a corresponding elemental Materia. The gameplay in itself is very fluid and I appreciate how smooth combat encounters feel to progress through.  The main element that makes this game’s combat so distinct though is the DMV system. Serving as a sort of buff system, a slot wheel will constantly cycle though combat encounters and when you get matching numbers or matching icons, you will gain buffs to your physical and magical attacks or obtain special abilities or summons to attack them with.  Its randomness can often make it an unreliable tool to utilize during certain encounters, but I found it generally helpful for a large proportion of the time. The progression system that is associated to the combat it well defined too. The Materia you equip will gain gradual progression through the combat you roll through and there’s a wide catalogue of Materia to pick from to tailor your combat approach as distinctly as you wish.

While the game is made somewhat more enjoyable based on the well-designed combat, it’s a shame the scope in which the combat is utilized is incredibly boring and repetitious.  This is where you can really tell this was originally a PSP title as the trademark limitations raise their ugly head all too often. 80% of the games level and environments are essentially narrow corridors you will have to run down.  The other 20% are open ended areas but even they feel notably condensed. Add that along with the fact that you have to load into every single area within a short timeframe and the incessant spawning of enemies for every 4-5 seconds you move forward of back in an area, it makes for an incredibly tedious exploration portion of the game. What will reinforce the repetitive nature of the game more than anything is its mission structure.  The game consists of 10 story chapters with their own dedicated missions but the main form of side content comes in the form of missions.  Whenever you log at a save point, you can access the mission menu and pick missions to do.  Missions serve as small scale escapades which will have you running down corridors, opening chests and killing monsters.  While this is a harmless enough piece of content, I didn’t expect it to be the games ONLY form of side content! In total there’s over three hundred of these missions to do and they all boil down to the same basic format.  There’s little to no justification to these missions besides new equipment or Materia either.  It’s an insanely lazy set up to add artificial longevity to a game in the form of repetitive missions. This and the games primary story missions serve to pinpoint the games true fundamental flaw, the limitation of the technology at the time made the developers have to condense the experience into these repetitive elements. I can forgive it for the time, but to remaster this game and choose to still incorporate this clearly dated gameplay structure is incredibly lazy.

In terms of presentation, the game does try to a degree. There’s an ample amount of effort put into remastering this dated game into a modern, graphical-focused landscape. Character models are sharp and feel like they could fit into the world of the modern remakes easily.  Environments while small do feel beautify rendered for what little there is to show.  Cutscenes for the most part feel nicely rendered too, although I did feel there was the odd cutscene they choose not to render and instead just ported over from the original game thinking we wouldn’t notice! Musical elements this time doesn’t feel as grandiose as the remakes either, a lot of the tracks like the gameplay itself felt repetitive and didn’t really stick out.

Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII Reunion is equal parts good, equal parts bad.  I can at least feel the developers tried to reimagine core aspects of the game to make it fit into a modern landscape, but it equates to more of a patch job than it does a brand-new revision.  Thankfully the story of the original Crisis Core needed no tweaking to make it stand out as the best aspect.  I think what ultimately let’s the game down though is its functional offerings.  While combat is designed in a way to be inherently fun, the game lacks the scope to utilize it in a way that doesn’t come off as boring.  It’s lesser elements definitely way it down and I wouldn’t blame someone for giving up on it because of them.  What is good though is worth staying for if you’re a Final Fantasy VII fan, as the story does a fantastic job in telling its own tale while knocking down the dominoes to form the chain reaction of events that will lead into Final Fantasy VII.