Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII Reunion (PlayStation 4) Review

Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII Reunion feels like how modern games have become: too much style and not much substance. While this is a remake of the PSP version, most of the changes were mostly updating the graphics. There was a substantial base of material they could have used here, but unlike Final Fantasy VII Remake, there was not an overhaul of the whole game. If you were to play the PSP version, this version would not be that different at all, which leads to some problems further down the line.

Crisis Core takes place before the events of the main game, focusing on the character Zack. For those that played the original Final Fantasy VII to conclusion, he is a core character in the story, but is only shown in flashbacks and how he impacted other characters. Therefore, from a story perspective, it is a cool idea to have this game show everything leading up to the original FFVII, focusing on past events. All the stories that show what happened are interesting, and the high point of Crisis Core.

Where things start to come off the rails is that there is not much content added over its PSP version. Graphically, some areas look very, very good. However, Crisis Core is very linear in terms of dungeons. Players are thrown into a pre-rendered map, with huge chunks of it blocked off, and then run forward a few halls to the boss. The entire game is based around this "mission" structure: pick from a list, get thrown into a level, fight, rinse, and repeat.

Another problem is, for as much time that is spent in battles, combat is kind of dry. Zack has a small attack chain to spam, but there are no interesting attack patterns or different moves to put together - just mash the same button over and over. There are additional abilities to equip through the Materia system, such as being able to spam fireballs etc. The problem is combat is not very fluid. There are strong pauses between attack types, which also leads to combat feeling clunky.

This is such a missed opportunity as it should have been a natural process to make combat more interesting, especially in an age with so many good examples of fluid combat. Half of the time, trying to cast a spell just results in getting hit by the enemy, staggering the character, and cancelling everything. It leads to a very "gamey" style of combat of things, like running in circles casting spells just to try to avoid getting poked.

One of the biggest issues in battles is the slot machine system. As players fight, in the corner of the screen a reel of numbers and characters spins around, and depending on what it lands, bonuses are given out. Here is where it starts to get bad. The levelling system is entirely tied to this. With certain hits on the slots, this is where Zack gets his level-ups, his Materia, or skills levels. An enterprising gamer might realise that they can park in an easy battle, go AFK for an hour, and come back to maxed out Materia. Why was that ever considered a good idea?

Crisis Core feels disjointed. The story only progresses through the selection of specific missions, many of which are short battles down a few tunnels. Zack is a cool character, and it is fascinating seeing the events that led up to what happens prior to Final Fantasy VII. All this being said, though, if someone was not a fan of the game, they would not enjoy the experience that much. This really deserved the overhaul the core game got, because at this point, it feels too much like a cash grab.