Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII Game Review
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Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII is a spinoff for the PSP that came out in 2007 and is often fondly remembered through the rose-colored glasses of nostalgia. The truth is that the first Crisis Core game was a mess when it came out, and it has only gotten worse over time. Crisis Core was a lot like the animated film Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children in that it was full of cool ideas that fans of the first Final Fantasy VII would like, but the way these ideas were put into action was often wrong.
Even with all its problems, it's easy to say that Crisis Core deserves a second chance, especially now that the Final Fantasy VII remake is a real thing. Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII Reunion is an extensive remaster, not a remake, of Zack Fair's troubled adventures in Shinra's elite military force, SOLDIER.
Now, Square Enix's remasters have been hit or miss in the last few years. Final Fantasy XII: The Zodiac Age is probably one of the best remasters you can buy, but Chrono Cross: The Radical Dreamers Edition still runs like crap on PS4. The second reunion, on the other hand, is much more like the first one. Overall, it looks much better than the original PSP version. The character models and environment assets have been redone, and the user interface has been changed to look more like Final Fantasy VII Remake.
Some fans might not like the change in art direction, though. Crisis Core, which came out in 2007, had characters with big, shiny eyes and animated faces that looked like they were from Kingdom Hearts. And while most of those silly (no pun intended) moves are used in Reunion, the cast looks much more "realistic"—probably to make it look like the new remake saga. For us, it works the way it was supposed to, and Crisis Core now feels like it belongs in the world of Remake. But other people might not agree.
At least you can't say anything bad about how well the remaster works. It runs at a steady 60 frames per second at 4K resolution on PS5, and at times, especially when sparks are flying during combat, it almost looks as good as the remake.
Those animations are the only thing that makes Reunion look less good than it could be. Now that the character models are so much more realistic, these comically overdone animations can look downright stupid in the game's many static dialogue scenes. There's a big difference between how old-fashioned and cheap-looking the game's cutscenes are and how good the remaster looks overall.
But let's be honest: Crisis Core has always been a very stupid game. Crisis Core has some really horrible writing, even for a Japanese RPG from the 2000s, even for a Square Enix project led by Nomura, and even for Final Fantasy at its most dramatic. In Reunion, only tiny, tiny parts of the script have been changed, but the point is still the same. The stories are often hard to follow, and the main character, Zack, is always kept in the dark by his superiors, who love speaking in funny, overly complicated riddles. If you haven't seen the first movie, you're in for a wild ride.
Is it part of the game's charm that it tells its story in such a shockingly strange way? We almost want to say yes. The fact that Crisis Core can be so stupid is kind of funny. It's right on the edge of being crap and being so bad that it's entertaining. Even though we've played this game before and know how it ends, we still got caught up in Zack's problems and thought "Sephiroth is so cool" every time he showed up on screen.
A lot of what makes Crisis Core work is basically fan service, which isn't always a bad thing. The game goes out of its way to show you how badass Sephiroth and his SOLDIER friends are. It also gives you hints about some of the characters' interesting backstories. Even though it's stupid, Crisis Core helps build one of the most popular game worlds.
And there's no doubt that the best way to do it is through reunion. Even if you don't like the new character models or the re-done voice acting (to be honest, the new Zack is at best questionable), the numerous gameplay changes are the deciding factor.
Combat has changed the most since the remaster was made. In the first game, fights were very strange because the game couldn't decide if it was an action game or a command-based one. It didn't even come close to the hybrid heaven of Remake's system, so Reunion borrows ideas from Cloud's latest adventure.
Zack moves faster, and his moves are easier to chain together. His dodge roll is more responsive and sneaky, making it feel like a real action RPG where timing and knowing what your opponent can do pay off. It's a huge step forward.
In Crisis Core, you can only play as Zack, so that's something to keep in mind. Since there are no party members, the unique Materia system is a big part of what makes the game interesting. By doing side missions, you'll build up a collection of orbs that boost stats and give special abilities. This lets you change Zack's loadout to fit the situation. Things that are fun and show once again that Square hit the jackpot with Final Fantasy VII's Materia
But not every system can be praised by everyone. The Digital Mind Wave, or DMW for short, is the part of the Crisis Core that divides people the most. During battles, it looks like a slot machine and sits in the top left corner of the screen. It keeps turning, and if you get lucky, you can use buffs, special attacks, and summons. It's strange, but the DMW isn't nearly as frustrating as it used to be now that combat has been changed for the better. Now that Zack can hold his own in tougher fights, you don't need Lady Luck to give you the necessary edge. This makes the DMW more of a fun extra, which is how it should have always been.
All of these changes to combat are important because other parts of the game are, well, lacking. Even though the backgrounds look a lot better now, the game's environment was simple and dull in 2007, and that hasn't changed. Mission locations are just corridors with encounters, and depending on how many side quests you do, you'll see the same corridors over and over again. Crisis Core can be a very repetitive game, and its origins as a portable game become more obvious as you play through bite-sized extra content.
Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII Reunion is a great remaster of a spinoff that wasn't very good and was often funny because of how bad it was. But despite all the angsty melodrama, Zack Fair's story is a funny, silly one that adds to the world of Final Fantasy VII. It's hard not to enjoy the obvious fan service and over-the-top cinematics, and the revamped combat system is much better than it used to be. a second chance worth taking.
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