I Finally Played Crisis Core (With Mixed Feelings)

I haven’t started Final Fantasy VII Rebirth yet, and one of the reasons is that I wanted to finish Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII Reunion first.

I always regretted not being able to play Crisis Core, since it was a PSP game with no digital version and I never had a PSP. So I was thrilled when a remaster was announced.

But my feelings about it ended up more mixed than I expected.

Crisis Core follows Zack, who plays a significant role in Final Fantasy VII’s backstory (the best way I can describe it without spoilers). For me, the game is at its best when it expands on events from the original game.

I loved the relationship between Zack and Aerith; it was very cute. I also enjoyed the friendship between Zack and Cloud. Sephiroth takes a good role in Crisis Core, too, and seeing more of him before the incident makes the eventual events feel all the more tragic.

There are a lot of fun little worldbuilding details in Crisis Core, like emails you get from various sources throughout the game and fan clubs for different members of Soldier, and that was great.

But many of the story elements added for Crisis Core fell flat for me. Genesis and Angeal, two new Soldier characters, feel like they’d be interesting in concept, but neither really worked for me in practice. Unfortunately, since they’re an important part of the main plot, that means there was a good chunk of Crisis Core’s story that I didn’t enjoy.

(There’s also a new Shinra scientist character called Hollander who felt pointless to me. I think it would have been better if that part had been reworked so the experiments were previous experiments of Hojo’s.)

Now, let’s talk about the gameplay. Crisis Core features random encounters with action combat that’s fairly standard, aside from the slot machine mechanic. While you play, slots will roll in the corner with images of important characters you have connected to. Different combinations give you buffs, special attacks, and level ups. You’ll also equip materia for magic and other benefits, and a materia fusion system lets you combine materia to get new or stronger ones, which allows for a fair bit of customization.

The game is quite linear, although there are occasional times when you can explore and get side quests. I was a little disappointed that there wasn’t more exploration, but it’s fine for the sort of game that it is.

Then there are the missions. Whenever you’re at a save point, you can choose to go on missions. Some of these are linked to side quests, while others are unlocked as you play. Missions reuse previous areas, but with a small section cordoned off with a number of treasure chests to find and a battle to reach as your goal.

When I started playing, I found these missions fun. They were basic, but I found it fun to do a few between story segments or while watching a video. I’d probably praise the missions if there were, say 100 of them. Maybe even 150.

But there are 300 of these simple, repetitive missions, and I got 37% of the way through the list before I got so sick of them I ignored them for the entire second half of the game.

Crisis Core is at its best when it expands on details from Final Fantasy VII and at its worst when it focuses on its original plot awkwardly shoehorned in alongside the existing material. I often love insane stories that other people find convoluted, so I hoped I’d be on board with Crisis Core’s more divisive elements, but I unfortunately wasn’t. However, I’m still happy I played Crisis Core, because it does have a lot of great moments despite its flaws.

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