Review
Played on: Xbox Series XReleased: 2022
Back in 2008, SquareEnix released a prequel to their massively successful Final Fantasy VII on handheld PSP, titled Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII. This release was a part of the company's large “Compilation of Final Fantasy VII” metaseries, which spans spin-off titles, mobile games and, most famously, the movie Advent Children. Read my review of the latter here. Crisis Core was a large success on Sony's portable console and sold over two million copies.
Intrigued by its premise, with positive memories of the Advent Children movie, I pre-ordered the Special Edition and received it in summer 2008. I quickly became hooked. Not only was it charming to revisit locations from FFVII, but also understanding the story of Zack and his life before and after meeting Cloud.
While on paper, a large RPG like FFVII might not seem suited for a handheld, Crisis Core was built for playing on the move. In addition to short main missions, with fairly compact story sequences, it offered even shorter side missions. These side missions are accessed from save points anywhere and are listed in various categories, marked with difficulty ratings. Battling it out in these side missions will level up your character up quickly, and doing so frequently will make the story missions a breeze.
This, bite sized, mission structure worked perfectly for its handheld nature. Quick, short playtime bursts on a bus or train, perfectly suited for the PSP.
Moving up to modern times, Crisis Core has now received a substantial remaster. All the original graphic assets have been remodelled, ported into Unreal Engine 4. Resulting in some substantial upgrades to locations and especially character models.
The modern assets are clearly pulled from the recent FFVII remake. However, Crisis Core Reunion highlights a lot of later locations from FFVII too, far beyond the span of the recent remake. As such, we get a glimpse of how the second part of the FFVII remake will look through classic locations, such as Cloud’s hometown, Nibelheim.
Sadly, the CGI cutscenes have only received basic digital upscaling, and alongside the brand-new, detailed 3D models of the characters, these CGI models look out of place and rough. Luckily, the CGI sequences are rare, considering the small amount of storage space the PSP’s UMD discs had back then. On the flipside, the massive new storage of modern times has allowed all the dialogue to be voiced. Thus, replacing the text-only presentation of the original release.
Although Crisis Core on PSP was a pretty title within the handheld’s graphical limitations, the visuals have been upgraded immensely. It’s a solid looking release, especially on character modelling and animation. However, with the sparse environmental detail, originating from a handheld game in the 2000s. Outdoor environments look sharp textured, but extremely sparse in detail. The actual play area is tiny too, before loading into the next area, clearly indicating the memory limitations it had on PSP. Perhaps combining small areas into one massive area could have been an idea for this remaster?
Thankfully, loading times are massively reduced, but the cut to a black screen each time you move from one area to the next, or even between scenes in a dialogue, happen extremely often. A jarring presentation downside of PSP limitation that could've been fixed.
Indoor locations are a little more interesting, and I’m guessing they're using assets from the FFVII remake here too. Although, still lacking a lot of finesse detail. Overall, the new visuals are pretty, but sparse in objects and geometry.
Luckily, the actual game is just as cool as it was back in 2008! Playing Zacks side of the story, filling in the gaps that FFVII left us. The building friendship with Cloud, after randomly meeting him on mission on a snowy mountain, is nice to witness and watch progress. The same feeling kicks in when encountering Aeris at the church in the slums and even Tifa turns up at one point!
Sephiroth's chilling change from a much respected and famous Shinra soldier status, to his evil rampage, is conveyed in more detail than the original FFVII. Filling in some of the blanks. The main villain, Genesis, however, is too over-dramatic and typical anime styled for my taste. His whole appearance and story feels redundant for the events that will unfold in FFVII. That said, there’s some sadness to him, that helps build the typical FF melancholy we all love.
Crisis Core really shines with it's nostalgia when revisiting classic FFVII locations, though. With these modern, remastered visuals, it’s a great companion to the FFVII remake. Especially Nibelheim, with the town square, the abandoned mansion and the mountain road leading to the Shinra reactor, are absolute high points and wonderful to replay. In fact, the whole stay at Nibelheim is the absolute high point of Crisis Core. Warming and familiar, yet eerily unsettling when you know the events that will unfold.
Gameplay has received a more dynamic and hands-on approach, with more freedom to its movement and faster pacing. You fully control Zack within the boundaries of a battle area and, at the same time, have various magical attacks, set to individual buttons for fast access. The regular sword attacks have little cooldown, so it appears as more of a hack n slash than an RPG at times.
Sadly, the CGI cutscenes have only received basic digital upscaling, and alongside the brand-new, detailed 3D models of the characters, these CGI models look out of place and rough. Luckily, the CGI sequences are rare, considering the small amount of storage space the PSP’s UMD discs had back then. On the flipside, the massive new storage of modern times has allowed all the dialogue to be voiced. Thus, replacing the text-only presentation of the original release.
Although Crisis Core on PSP was a pretty title within the handheld’s graphical limitations, the visuals have been upgraded immensely. It’s a solid looking release, especially on character modelling and animation. However, with the sparse environmental detail, originating from a handheld game in the 2000s. Outdoor environments look sharp textured, but extremely sparse in detail. The actual play area is tiny too, before loading into the next area, clearly indicating the memory limitations it had on PSP. Perhaps combining small areas into one massive area could have been an idea for this remaster?
Thankfully, loading times are massively reduced, but the cut to a black screen each time you move from one area to the next, or even between scenes in a dialogue, happen extremely often. A jarring presentation downside of PSP limitation that could've been fixed.
Indoor locations are a little more interesting, and I’m guessing they're using assets from the FFVII remake here too. Although, still lacking a lot of finesse detail. Overall, the new visuals are pretty, but sparse in objects and geometry.
Luckily, the actual game is just as cool as it was back in 2008! Playing Zacks side of the story, filling in the gaps that FFVII left us. The building friendship with Cloud, after randomly meeting him on mission on a snowy mountain, is nice to witness and watch progress. The same feeling kicks in when encountering Aeris at the church in the slums and even Tifa turns up at one point!
Sephiroth's chilling change from a much respected and famous Shinra soldier status, to his evil rampage, is conveyed in more detail than the original FFVII. Filling in some of the blanks. The main villain, Genesis, however, is too over-dramatic and typical anime styled for my taste. His whole appearance and story feels redundant for the events that will unfold in FFVII. That said, there’s some sadness to him, that helps build the typical FF melancholy we all love.
Crisis Core really shines with it's nostalgia when revisiting classic FFVII locations, though. With these modern, remastered visuals, it’s a great companion to the FFVII remake. Especially Nibelheim, with the town square, the abandoned mansion and the mountain road leading to the Shinra reactor, are absolute high points and wonderful to replay. In fact, the whole stay at Nibelheim is the absolute high point of Crisis Core. Warming and familiar, yet eerily unsettling when you know the events that will unfold.
Gameplay has received a more dynamic and hands-on approach, with more freedom to its movement and faster pacing. You fully control Zack within the boundaries of a battle area and, at the same time, have various magical attacks, set to individual buttons for fast access. The regular sword attacks have little cooldown, so it appears as more of a hack n slash than an RPG at times.
The dodge roll also becomes your friend, saving you from oncoming attacks, or to roll around large enemies and attack from behind. At first, the gameplay might seem a little fast, but it becomes second nature and you’ll be pulling off combinations of magic and physical attacks with ease soon enough.
I must've done over half of the side missions and had an absolutely ease to complete the main story as such. Always being overpowered. It took me around 25 hours to complete, so it’s not as big an endeavour as the original FFVII, but it suits the fast gameplay and short mission structure nicely. After all, it's not such a massive story to tell here, compared to FFVII.
The reunion has indeed been pleasant, it’s brought back memories of my time with the original release. A game I’ve held dearly in my memory and had a wonderful time completing back in the day. For newcomers, this remaster is a wonderful way to play it, modernised for large TVs and modern graphical standards. A plus for allowing this to be a 4K@60fps title on my Xbox Series X too!
Although it’s visually upgraded, it’s still a handheld title at heart. As such, not fixing issues like the tiny level areas, grainy dated CGI sequences and constant black screen cuts, where the loading used to be, is very noticeable. At the same time, there’s a much larger budget put into this remaster than expected, so the difference between the new and old release is massive. I do feel the full price point is a little steep, it should've been a lower priced release.
If you’re curious about Zack, and love the FFVII lore, then this is an easy decision for a purchase. While it won’t blow you away with its story like the original FFVII did, it fills in a lot of the gaps in the past history to the characters. It’s an easy game to learn, become heavily levelled up quickly and it’s perfect to complete a few side missions here and there if your time schedule is restricted.
That said, I must stress that you need to play FFVII first to fully appreciate it, it’s not a prequel to play prior to the original!
I must've done over half of the side missions and had an absolutely ease to complete the main story as such. Always being overpowered. It took me around 25 hours to complete, so it’s not as big an endeavour as the original FFVII, but it suits the fast gameplay and short mission structure nicely. After all, it's not such a massive story to tell here, compared to FFVII.
The reunion has indeed been pleasant, it’s brought back memories of my time with the original release. A game I’ve held dearly in my memory and had a wonderful time completing back in the day. For newcomers, this remaster is a wonderful way to play it, modernised for large TVs and modern graphical standards. A plus for allowing this to be a 4K@60fps title on my Xbox Series X too!
Although it’s visually upgraded, it’s still a handheld title at heart. As such, not fixing issues like the tiny level areas, grainy dated CGI sequences and constant black screen cuts, where the loading used to be, is very noticeable. At the same time, there’s a much larger budget put into this remaster than expected, so the difference between the new and old release is massive. I do feel the full price point is a little steep, it should've been a lower priced release.
If you’re curious about Zack, and love the FFVII lore, then this is an easy decision for a purchase. While it won’t blow you away with its story like the original FFVII did, it fills in a lot of the gaps in the past history to the characters. It’s an easy game to learn, become heavily levelled up quickly and it’s perfect to complete a few side missions here and there if your time schedule is restricted.
That said, I must stress that you need to play FFVII first to fully appreciate it, it’s not a prequel to play prior to the original!
