If you want to be a hero, then be one! (Crisis Core -Final Fantasy VII- Reunion in review)

     Final Fantasy VII is obviously a hot topic right now, as it always is, but especially since the remake arrived on the scene back in 2019. Over the next few years, we're getting parts 2 and 3 of the remake (as the game labeled as Final Fantasy VII Remake really only covered the first area of the original game) with the second part called Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, and the third game which hasn't had a title revealed. In the meantime, We got Crisis Core -Final Fantasy VII- Reunion, a remaster of a PSP game which tells the story of Zack Fair, an incredibly influential character to the lore of Final Fantasy VII, even if he doesn't directly contribute to the actual proceedings of the game. Out of respect for all of my friends who have never played Final Fantasy VII, I won't be touching on a lot of the lore of this game, just because it gives away some strange plot development for that game, and that's also why I will say you'll get much more enjoyment out of Crisis Core if you play Final Fantasy VII first, in whatever capacity you play it in. With that in mind, let's get out the Buster Blade and cut into this interesting prequel.

 A touch of story never hurt, right?

    As I stated before, this game is all about Zack Fair, a Soldier working for the Shinra corporation, who soon after the start of the game is promoted to Soldier First Class, the highest rank available. Zack's dream is to be a hero, and he constantly chases that dream, even as his world falls apart. You interact with a lot of different characters from Final Fantasy VII, some in very unexpected ways, but in addition, there are a few characters that are new here. Mainly we have Angeal, Zack's mentor, and Genesis, who acts as the antagonist for most of the game. Along with these two, we have many confrontations with another Soldier First Class, a friendly guy named Sephiroth. You may know him as that one definite villain from Final Fantasy VII, but he's a nice guy here, I wonder what happens to him in this game! I don't want to say much else about the story as I already said, but what I will say is that I'm kind of surprised that Square Enix chose now to rerelease this game. I feel like a lot of the stuff about Zack will be talked about a bit more in the Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, though I could definitely be wrong about that. Maybe they thought it was important for people to know about Zack and his significance before playing the next game in the series. The story beats that didn't relate to the plot of Final Fantasy VII definitely confused me, which is another reason why I'm not going into the plot, because I don't even know where to begin with it. I will also say that Zack is a very likable character, much more silly and less brooding than some other Soldiers we see in the original Final Fantasy VII. The story plays out well through the mechanics as well, I have to say, which is where this game really shines.

Memories are your greatest weapons!

    The gameplay here I'm sure was extremely influential on how Final Fantasy VII Remake plays, since it's no longer a Turn-Based RPG, it now plays more as an action game with RPG elements, like Kingdom Hearts. You have a button for attack, choose whether to do a fast but weak or strong but slow attack based on how long you hold the button for, and your spells or abilities are customizable, so you can equip whatever you want to where you want, unlocking new abilities and buttons to equip them on as you go along. I want to give a quick shout out to the ability synthesis feature, which was also in Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep, where you can combine two abilities to make a more powerful one, and also add an item to give it some special perk. I love this system, so I was very happy to see it come back. Another system that is original to this game, and one that I've not seen anywhere else is what I call the "Slot Machine system." There is constantly a slot-machine display at the top left of the screen during battles, and based on what it lands on, you'll get different abilities and perks at random, such as having unlimited Magic or Ability Points, or getting special abilities. These abilities are based on different characters that Zack meets throughout the game, for example, he meets Sephiroth and he suddenly has the chance to use Omnislash if it's rolled on the slots. This is also reliant on where you are in the story, with character interactions making the chance of getting a certain character's ability much higher than others. It also sometimes plays a little cutscene between the character and Zack before it triggers your ability being available. These scenes are cool, and it definitely makes it feel like Zack has more encounters with these characters than we would have seen otherwise, and lends to the feeling that he has more normal interactions in his life than we're allowed to see as part of the plot. The Summon mechanic in this game is also determined by the slot machine, where sometimes you'll get a summon ability and that adds it to the rotation of things that you can possibly use by spinning it. It's a weird mechanic all around, but I do really like it. It gives it a whole form of individuality and randomness when it comes to battles.

I hope you made time for missions!

    The format of this game is really strange, I have to say. The bulk of the game here isn't the actual storyline, but the missions that you can access from every save point in the game. Since in this game you play the role of Soldier, Shinra's enlisted group of Mako-infused soldiers, you're expected to do missions for your commanders and other people. You don't have to, you could probably just plow through the game if you wanted to, but that wouldn't be in your best interest, since you would get significantly fewer abilities and items, as well as completely missing out on all of the summons in the game. To put it in perspective, I finished the game with only about 35% of the missions finished, and that was with long periods of time just trying to grind through a lot of them. There are tons of missions here, though none of them are very long. It's a really weird choice, but I guess they decided it was better to have more gameplay than less, especially since the story isn't incredibly long. At the end of the day, it's a fairly fun combat system, so I'm glad to get more time with it.

    I have to be honest, I never had a PSP so I never played this game back in the day when it was first released. Based on some of these animated cutscenes that are the same as they were on PSP though, I think this game is a huge improvement on the graphics of the much older version. I'm sure it played completely fine on the original hardware, but it's certainly not nearly as great as the smoothness that I got from the PS5 version. I would imagine (and hope) that the other versions work well also, but I can only speak from my own experience, of course. During my playtime, I didn't experience any crashes or stuttering, everything ran at a consistent frame-rate while definitely demonstrating Square Enix's passion for making really good looking games. I especially loved the little animations during Zack's special attacks inspired by the different characters. It shows a level of silliness and fun in this game which can be a downer more often than not.

    I think Crisis Core is especially worth playing for people who loved Final Fantasy VII, and maybe those who enjoyed the remake better than that original game. If you don't know the full plot and where Zack fits into the dynamic, you might want to wait until the next part of the remake trilogy is out, though you'll more than likely be fine. Just beware if you're one of those spoiler-sensitive people (like myself in some situations), there are some strange things that happen in this game that inform some strange things that happen later on in the game. Do they make sense? Not really (at least to me), but they're entertaining and in the context of the story, they make more sense as long as you don't think about them too hard.

    Overall, I really liked this game, and I'm glad to have finally played it, if for no other reason to understand the character of Zack a bit better. I think most people will enjoy it, even if it is a slightly shorter romp than a lot of other Action RPG's such as Kingdom Hearts. Honestly, they probably made the game this way to be more easily playable on a handheld, but who knows. The game is still a lot of fun even in a home console setting, and I'm just happy to have a way to play it after all these years!

    Thanks so much for reading, friends. I finished this game a few weeks ago and I've just been so caught up in writing on other things, I forgot to write about it right away. I really hope people are happy with this remaster, and I hope we'll continue to see more great stuff from Square Enix very soon! I think Final Fantasy XVI is coming out first, but Final Fantasy VII Rebirth is the next one after that, and I am honestly very excited for both! I hope you'll all have a great week friends, and always remember to hold true to what you wish for, just like Zack did. I'm Jonathan, your Self-Proclaimed resident of Midgar, and I'll talk to you again soon!