In 2007, Final Fantasy VII: Crisis Core was a spin-off recreation; One a part of a money seize geared toward Final Fantasy 7 obsessives that had been on the lookout for one thing to play on the PlayStation Portable. It was a prequel-flavored slice of Midgar and the world of FF7 with real-time battles, baffling reels and sufficient goodwill and story lore to make all of it nearly work.

The story facilities round a comparatively minor (however widespread!) character from the unique recreation, Zack. Without spoiling the whys and whens (and 2020’s FF7R is shaking up the canon of Final Fantasy 7 anyhow), Zack has vital connections to Cloud, the massive dangerous Sephiroth and different characters. Unfortunately, he dies earlier than the unique recreation begins and solely seems in flashbacks.

As Square Enix tees up half 2 of its big-budget Remake venture, Crisis Core Reunion provides newer gamers the prospect to fill within the storyline blanks on Zack. He’s featured in post-credit scenes in Remake, suggesting he could be a extra vital character going ahead.

Square Enix has upgraded the character fashions, backgrounds, textures and the UI to convey some extent of graphical parity between Crisis Core and the current Remake. There’s additionally voice appearing throughout your entire storyline of the sport. However, the character animations haven’t benefited from the identical stage of consideration – it seems like Final Fantasy X’s HD remaster. That’s not so dangerous, but it surely’s just a little disappointing from a PS5 recreation in 2022. Crisis Core Reunion has a number of character fashions that look nearly adequate to seem in Remake, even when they transfer like characters in a PS2 recreation. (Sephiroth particularly, who seems briefly within the demo, appears extra lovingly remastered than even Zack.)

It’s not all dangerous information. Now on a house console, you have got two analog controllers to manage digicam and motion concurrently: the PSP simply had one analog nub. It makes the battles far simpler to parse and concentrate on. And the battles had been nonetheless satisfying, if just a little easy, throughout my demo.

Don’t anticipate the responsive battles and spectacle of Remake, both. Crisis Core’s slot-machine battle mechanism referred to as “Digital Mind Wave (DMW) – no idea – is still here. During battles, it will cycle automatically through numbers and pictures of characters you meet through the game. If some of the numbers match, you can pick up health, ability points, improved chances of a critical hit and more. If the reel pictures match up, you can launch a powerful Limit Break attack that can do a lot of damage, buff your character and some other nice things. If the numbers line up as “777”, Zack will acquire a stage — and that is nonetheless bizarre.

The battle system, just like the visuals, is from an easier time. You’ll struggle with a mix of sword swings, spells, and strategies, topped up with Limit Breaks. You can block and dodge, which was essential within the two boss battles I confronted. But all of it felt just a little too primary.

I maintain evaluating Crisis Core with Remake, with its fluid animation, slow-mo menus and.. Millions of {dollars} of improvement capital. That’s just a little unfair, however Crisis Core Reunion is right here for FF7 followers trying dive deeper into the sport’s lore — 2007 was a really very long time in the past.