Square Enix propose Crisis Core –Final Fantasy VII– Reunion, a remake of the PSP hit on consoles and PC. We tell you everything!
15 years after its release on PlayStation Portable (PSP for friends), the prequel to the Final Fantasy VII saga arrives in a “remake” version which comes just in time to make us wait while waiting for the sequel to Final Fantasy VII Remake, Rebirth, which is still scheduled for the end of 2023 on PlayStation 5.
As a reminder, the story takes place seven years before the events of Final Fantasy VII. Zack Fair, a young Shinra SOLDIER lifts the lid on Shinra’s evil experiments. A thrilling adventure follows, accompanied by faces well known by fans of the seventh installment of the franchise.
Crisis Core -Final Fantasy VII- Reunion is an Action-RPG with a gameplay close to Final Fantasy VII Remake but with some originalities. Controller in hand, you can therefore attack via the square button, dodge with the cross, protect yourself with R1 and use up to 6 materia via the L1 button combined with other buttons. (Ex: L1 + square or L1 + R2). To use an object in combat (especially a potion in the event of a hard blow) you can scroll through the different objects with the L2 and R2 keys and thus select it with the circle key. As in its original version, the fights have a small notion of luck with the ONC (Digital Brain Wave), a “Jackpot” release that will give you series of numbers that can benefit you during the fight by granting you advantages or even status effects.
No Open World here, CCFF7R (to make it shorter) takes place in a very linear way and does not hide its scripted ambition. We advance from zone to zone, from monster to monster, until we face a boss, while discovering the parts of the title’s history. It may seem minimalist but many games of the time used this scriptwriting facility to center their game on the story which, let’s face it, is the main attraction of the game.
Combat missions are offered to you, allowing you to unlock materia, equipment or even new summons. Mini-games are also there which is a plus to get out of the monotony. Side life, the main story will take you about fifteen hours. For fans of trophy hunting, you will need no less than 40 to 45 hours to unlock all the trophies and thus unlock the precious platinum.
Graphically, we will especially note the differences between the ingame phases and the cutscenes. These are fuzzy whether in CGI or precomputed. We have the impression that the cutscenes are taken directly from the PSP game, while the gameplay and cutscene phases with the game engine are very clean. A curious choice on the part of the developers. But ignoring the cutscenes, the game is very beautiful and fluid.
To conclude, Crisis Core –Final Fantasy VII– Reunion it’s a bit like the game we made and that we always wanted to bring out to finish it or discover it, but the barrier of technology was blocking it. Now that it’s available on all current consoles and PCs, it’s a good time to (re)discover this rather nice title. We will just note the lack of a French dubbing and some runny cutscenes, but overall the title is great.
Crisis Core –Final Fantasy VII– Reunion is available on PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, PC et Nintendo Switch.
| Most | The lessers |
| A pleasure to dive back into this opus | No French dubbing, too bad… |
| Graphically pleasing… | …but the really ugly cutscenes |
| Le gameplay efficace | A bit short |
| L’ambiance FF7 | |
| A good appetizer before Rebirth |