With the huge success that Square Enix had in 2020 with the release of “Final Fantasy VII Remake”, it is not surprising that it would take the opportunity to expand and/or add to the universe of this game.

In 2007, the spin-off prequel, “Crisis Core”, was released for the PSP, which tells the story of Zack Fair, one of the key characters in the plot of “Final Fantasy VII”.

“Crisis Core Reunion” is the return of this acclaimed game in the form of a beautiful Remaster.

Regarding narrative and level design, the Remaster is a 1:1 adaptation, that is, 100% faithful to the original PSP version. For this reason, we will focus on the technical aspects, and we will only bring up the level design in the final part of the analysis.

“Crisis Core” brings a great modernization of gameplay and graphics

“Crisis Core Reunion” is a heavyweight Remaster. It brought several additions to the game compared to its original: visual changes, mechanics, soundtrack, and voice acting.

Unreal Engine 4 was used to create the remaster, and all character models and scenario textures were updated as a result.

The soundtrack also had a makeover, both in terms of songs that already existed and the addition of tracks used in the FFVII Remake.

The game has been fully voiced, and now there are no text bubbles without voice acting. Some characters were also completely re-dubbed to match the new voices from the English dub of FF VII Remake (the original Japanese voices were unchanged).

“Crisis Core Reunion” has had its gameplay updated. If the original contained only one menu to perform all combat actions, the Remaster now has several menus: Your attack is linked to a dedicated action button, making combat much faster compared to its predecessor; there is a shortcut menu for spells and abilities, as well as a menu for consumable items.

The DMW, a game system that runs a type of roulette wheel with several random results that generate buffs, trigger abilities, and allow the use of summons, has also been renewed. Unlike the original, it is no longer invasive during battles, disrupting the combat rhythm.

It’s good for Live Streaming, with a few caveats

For this review, the PS4 Pro version was analyzed.

“Crisis Core Reunion” is a very beautiful game in its PS4 Pro version, and there were no problems with its performance during almost the entire gameplay; it stayed at 30 FPS without frame drops.
The PS4, Xbox One, and Switch versions run at 30 FPS, and the PS5, Xbox Series S, and Xbox Series X versions run at 60 FPS. And the PC version can vary according to your setup and go up to 120 FPS.

Because it is a 100% faithful adaptation in terms of the narrative, a problem arises: it has aged badly, as it is still the narrative of a 2007 game, so the way in which the dialogues can have a slow pace and sometimes a very silly humor can take away your immersion a bit, especially if played after FF VII Remake.

And also, because it is a 100% faithful Remaster in terms of level design, it contains something that may not be very effective to do in Live Streams: its extra content.

It uses a system of side quests based on missions, and they basically consist of: entering linear maps, hunting an enemy in search of an item, killing an enemy to get a treasure, and re-fighting a boss but stronger. And so forth for an infinite number of side quests. Naturally, this can be boring for you and your audience.

It is recommended to focus on the main story of the game, as it can take between 13 and 20 hours in length. It varies greatly if you choose to carry out a few side quests to level up your character and manage to progress satisfactorily in the game.

It is worth noting that unlike FF VII Remake, Reunion does not contain many language options, which is very disappointing considering that the story is one of its focuses. The only supported languages are English, French, Italian, German, Spanish – Spain, Japanese, Korean, Simplified Chinese, and Traditional Chinese.

Crisis Core – Final Fantasy VII – Reunion

PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series, Nintendo Switch (2022)

Performance

Streamability

Audience Engagement

Replayability

Summary

Crisis Core – Final Fantasy VII – Reunion is a beautiful Remaster, that modernizes the game’s look, soundtrack, voice acting, and gameplay. Because it is a 100% faithful adaptation, it has aged a little badly in its level design and narrative. Still, it’s a Remaster that’s worth checking out, but you’ll have to deal with the few language options.