Over the course of the 15-30 hour experience available, Crisis Core was an occasionally messy but ultimately clever prequel that quickly became the highlight from the Compilation of Final Fantasy VII media blowout from the 2000s which gave us the kind of the ultimate Fantasy VII: Advent Children film. In those days, it was a unique to Sony’s Sony psp handheld console, where it impressed with production values beyond what anyone was utilized to in this small format along with a compelling gameplay loop that included a distinctive, real-time combat system.
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Fast forward to today, and Final Fantasy VII is seeing something of a renaissance because of 2023’s Final Fantasy VII Remake starting off a trilogy set look around the original’s story and setting anew. Where that game was a wholly new undertake the early area of the main Final Fantasy VII game, Crisis Core Reunion is nearer to a “remaster” from the PSP prequel, updating the presentation and crucial gameplay elements but leaving the core from the game largely intact. It can make a lot of sense too, in which the PS1 original’s old-school JRPG sensibilities were due to have an update in the remake, Crisis Core’s action-oriented gameplay and snappy pacing still hold up fairly well.
The biggest and many immediate changes in Crisis Core’s move to modern platforms almost all stem from the vast gulf in functionality between the PSP’s restrictive button layouts and the controllers open to players on home consoles and PC. The straightforward inclusion of camera control with a right stick has a transformative effect on how the game is presented and just how Zack handles in the moment, but the team at Square Enix has risen to this new challenge admirably by both ensuring players have stuff to look at outside of the confines of the original perspective as well as using the majority of its combat gameplay to the drawing board to rethink how it should operate in the brand new format.
I mentioned lots of what’s changed within my earlier preview impressions from the game, however the crux of it is the fact that combat in Reunion feels vastly more fast-paced and reactive compared to the PSP version of Crisis Core. Gone is the clunky, scrolling menu that bound all your actions including basic attacks and magic, and today everything is mapped towards the large number of face and shoulder buttons available instead. With full, immediate charge of Zack’s actions along with a freely-adjustable camera, fights feel much nearer to something similar to Final Fantasy VII Remake or even Kingdom Hearts.
All from the neat little wrinkles and concepts that made combat in Crisis Core unique and interesting the very first time continue to be here, mind, such as the compelling and unpredictable DMW system, the way Materia is integrated into the flow of the action and the have to think carefully about your equipment layout when facing on the game’s toughest foes, it’s all just a lot more manageable in the moment. Newer and more effective tweaks happen to be implemented to make the most of Zack’s enhanced playability too, like the ability to cancel powerful foes’ ultimate attacks by pummelling all of them with strong abilities. In its new form, I’d almost be bold enough to point out it’s one of my favourite takes on real-time combat that the Final Fantasy franchise has dabbled in thus far, despite a noticeable lack of challenge even around the Hard difficulty setting.
Outside of combat, the overall gameplay and structure of Crisis Core is much more recognisable and true to the handheld original, although again the addition of full camera control does give everything a different feel. Occasionally it’s more noticeable, actually a few of the late-game set pieces and minigames seemingly needed to be modified to fit, but for the most part it’s exactly the same game. That means what’s this is a mostly-linear jaunt through 10 distinct chapters where you’ll trek via a few key locales while occasionally being afforded the opportunity to wander parts of Midgar and other places of your accord and pick up side content. Funnily enough, anyone visiting this game from Final Fantasy VII Remake will feel right at home with how things are laid out, albeit of the smaller scope here.
The one quirk of Crisis Core’s that may come out like a bit of a rub with beginners is its reliance upon bite-sized, self-contained “Missions” to pad out its gameplay offering. You will find 300 from the bloody things, and while they were a fantastic way to offer PSP players short bursts of gameplay they could get rid of on a commute or during a bathroom break, they make less sense here. Each one is a barely minutes-long endeavour where you’re dropped into certainly one of merely a small selection of environments to navigate, obtaining treasures and engaging in combat encounters in order to take down a predetermined foe.
