CRISIS CORE –FINAL FANTASY VII– REUNION

Where to begin. This game is just not good. It was probably fun in 2007 when people were desperate for any game in the Final Fantasy 7 universe and would put up with anything, but it just does not hold up. The biggest problem is how progression works. Your stats in this game are mainly controlled by your materia. So to increase your stats, you to have to increase the stats on your materia, which is done by repeatedly mastering various materia and fusing them together. This won't happen just naturally over the course of the game enough for you to beat it, though. You have to grind. But grinding in this game does not mean doing a bunch of battles over and over again. No. Instead, your materia in fact simply levels up at completely random times while you're in a battle. There is a literal slot machine constantly running in the top left corner of the screen, and if you get the right combination, one of your materia will gain a level. But if you try to grind by just completing a bunch of battles over and over, that's actually counterproductive because you'll be winning the fights too quickly for the slot machine to ever roll the right combination for your materia to level up. Instead, "grinding" in this game means getting into a low level fight and just standing there, for 5, 10, 15 minutes at a time while the slot machine repeatedly rolls, and hits enough times to eventually level up all your equipped materia. Then, equip some new materia, and do it again - get into another fight and wait 5, 10, 15 minutes for it to level up. Rinse, repeat, rinse, repeat, until the stats on your materia are high enough for you to beat the next boss. I skipped this process by using cheat engine to instantly level up my materia, because there was no chance I was going to waste hours of my life sitting and watching a slot machine spin. But that is what the game actually expects you to do. It's the only way to succeed, especially if you play on the harder difficulty. Then, the story. If you want to play this game because you want to learn the story of Zack Fair, don't. It's a total waste of time. You don't learn anything interesting about him or anything that is relevant to the main story of FF7. Instead, the story is mainly about how Shinra is making monsters with Mako, and injecting SOLDIER's with Jenova cells, which you already know because you played FF7 so that's nothing new. Basically, it turns out that there are two other people who Shinra experimented on in addition to Sephiroth, and what a surprise, one of them is evil so Zack has to fight him. It's a super basic bland story with a bunch of filler that makes no sense whatsoever and was just an excuse for FF7 fans in 2007 to visit places they thought they'd never see again. Without that novelty, it's just boring. They also manage to shoehorn in the Nibelheim cutscene, complete with retcons that allow the villain of this game to participate. But it adds absolutely nothing new or revealing to the FF7 story.

第一次知道FF7这个IP，还是在幼儿园。 那时候总喜欢趴在爸爸旁边，看他用PSP玩CC。年纪太小，甚至分不清游戏里的3D建模和真人的区别，只记得屏幕里有个黑色刺猬头的大哥哥，笑起来很耀眼。我会盯着他看很久，只觉得这个人真好看。 后来学业慢慢把游戏隔在了生活之外，但FF7的影子始终留在记忆里。直到大学时玩到了SE出的手游EC，那些尘封多年的画面忽然被重新唤醒，我才想着把CC再认真玩一遍。 很多老游戏重温时，多少都会被时代感磨掉一些滤镜，但CC没有。 它或许没有后来作品那样极致的画面表现，却把最重要的东西都留在了人物身上。 扎克斯一直是我最喜欢的角色之一。阳光、热血、有点大大咧咧，却又温柔而坚定。他怀揣着成为英雄的梦想，却从不因此变得高高在上；他会保护同伴，会珍惜感情，会在命运步步紧逼的时候依然选择向前走。 他并不完美，会迷茫，会憧憬，会犯错，也会留下遗憾。正因为如此，他才像一个真正活着的人。毫不夸张地说，我后来的审美很大程度上都受到了他的影响。不只是对游戏角色的偏好，甚至连现实中欣赏什么样的人，都能隐约看到那个黑发少年的影子。 而CC让我记住的也从来不只有扎克斯。爱丽丝、安吉尔、杰内西斯、萨菲罗斯，每个人都有自己的执念与挣扎，都有属于自己的悲剧和选择。小时候的我只记得他们的外貌和招式，如今再玩，却终于能读懂他们背后的故事，读懂扎克斯笑容底下的重量，也读懂那句贯穿全作的话： “拥有梦想的人，才是真正的英雄。” 很多年过去了。 直到今天，我再次打开电脑游玩CC想起的已经不只是游戏本身。 我会想起那个百无聊赖的下午，想起坐在爸爸身边看他玩游戏的自己，想起那些还不懂故事、却已经被故事悄悄影响的人生时刻。 有些游戏之所以难忘，不是因为它有多么伟大，而是因为它陪着你走过了一段再也回不去的时光。 CC对我来说，就是这样的游戏。

My biggest connection to the Final Fantasy franchise is through Final Fantasy VII and Kingdom Hearts. Growing up, I had a PS2 and Kingdom Hearts, and that was mostly my exposure to Final Fantasy until later in my teenage years, when I started getting into the games more seriously. I first played Final Fantasy VII in 2019, and I absolutely fell in love with it. It was a game I thought I already knew all the major events of, simply because it was such a cultural zeitgeist. It felt like one of those stories that everyone just “knows”—like how someone who has never watched Star Wars can still understand its major plot points due to its cultural popularity. That’s how FF7 felt to me. Playing Final Fantasy VII was an absolute delight because I couldn’t believe how many moments were still complete surprises. Characters such as Crisis Core’s main protagonist, Zack, were a total surprise to me. I had assumed he was created exclusively for that game and nothing more. Experiencing the original Final Fantasy VII and understanding Zack’s importance—and how his motivations shaped Cloud—not only made Cloud a deeply layered character, but also clarified what he was truly fighting for. Much like my earlier experience with the franchise, I completely missed Crisis Core during the PSP era, despite owning the system. It was a blind spot for me. After all these years, I finally sat down and experienced Crisis Core through the remaster, Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII Reunion. After all this time, I’ve finally completed Crisis Core, and what an experience it was. At a lean 12 hours or so, it was all killer, no filler. The game follows Zack Fair and his journey to becoming a hero. The gameplay felt like an awesome blend of Kingdom Hearts energy with that distinct Final Fantasy identity—I could definitely see where the inspiration overlapped. Crisis Core tells a powerful story about the legendary hero Zack Fair and “The Price of Freedom.” By the end, I was holding my controller in awe at how impactful the finale was. While Zack’s fate may be well known, experiencing the events and meeting the characters along the way added so much weight to that ending. I can’t recall a video game ending in recent years that made me feel that way. For me, it stands as a near-perfect conclusion. Crisis Core is the definition of a prequel done right. It meaningfully adds to the events of what comes after and enhances the overall experience of Final Fantasy VII. With the Final Fantasy franchise, I’m often reminded of how frustrated I am that I didn’t immerse myself in these characters and stories at an earlier age. I continue to adore the Final Fantasy VII cast and narrative more and more—through the original game, its spin-offs, and even the Remake. I’ve been loving this reintroduction to these characters and the new ways their stories are being told. Final Fantasy VII: Crisis Core is a must-play for anyone who has experienced Final Fantasy VII. You owe it to yourself to witness the man from Gongaga become a legendary hero.

砍了一波又一波的神罗士兵，还是等不到西斯妮的飞机，救不活你吗，扎克斯...

省流：粉丝向这部推荐云一下。除非你要补齐ff7前传或者奔着爱丽丝并且能忍受下上缺点就可以入。很可惜评论只有俩种选择，就我个人而言肯定愿意慢慢吃完这部的。剧情优秀是你最大的优点，不过那是ff7的优点，而不是reunion。（这句是夹带私活版：当然你吃战友情这部真的太香了。全是帅男组合） [h2]优点 [/h2] 1.有remastered部分的内容很高清，小Za很可爱，萨菲罗斯很帅。画质也看得过去，饱和度蛮舒服的。没忍住截了不少图><另外就是塑造小狗Za很成功，帅气吊儿郎当。也从这部看到我们祖传的毁灭剑（） 2.这款与re和rb半回合制不同，偏向即时战斗。然后加入了那个转盘随机获得buff，随机获得羁绊助战（伙伴给你个技能这样），转盘是类似于扭三个随机数字，对应规律会解锁对应技能。 [h2] 缺点 [/h2] 1.很难绷明明都已经remastered了但是部分还是照搬psp的画面。部分cg还是那种上古画质（虽然是在07年代相当震惊的等级）主要是超清标清混用真的太难绷了 2.战斗的话砍人没什么感觉，就好像人物只是发出动作指令然后怪显示“-xxx”这样。怪基本都是霸体，主控小扎0韧性，一被打一下就等着被当陀螺连抽好几下吧（不要啊我不想当m） 3.做支线让我梦回玩崩坏3年代，就是你选任务然后给你丢到一个图里面。这点其实没什么，但是所有怪都是暗雷，做支线让你找怪你没碰到怪你都不知道哪里有怪，而做主线的时候你压根不想打怪又走几步触发战斗。究极草单！！！ 4.据我所知，主线很短只有十来小时游戏时间，支线三百左右任务你就清吧。（顺带一提，支线就是让你拿宝箱刷怪，就除了几个有点剧情的其他都是拖时间的）

Having played Final Fantasy 7 Remake Intergrade in the past, I hought I'd play this before I took on Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth as kind of prelude since Crisis Core Final Fantasy 7 Reunion is supposed to be part of the FF7R canon. People were talking about how the story is great in this entry. Well? Ehh. Game? Very mediocre. A bit of a grindy slog most of the time. Everything feels incredibly dated, and animations are hellishly wooden and rigid, since this IS a remaster of a PSP game. Combat is very basic, but it IS fun. Eventually, the combat grew extremely repetitive so I eventually built my Zack around just spamming the most overpowered Materia I could possibly find and exploiting elemental weaknesses as much as possible early on in the game. The materia fusion system is pretty neat, when you are actually allowed to use it.. Another thing about the combat (and progression in general) is that the progression and much of the combat is highly based around the Digital Mind Wave mechanic, which is essentially a slot machine in the upper left hand corner of the screen. What this Digital Mind Wave (or DMW for short) does is randomly spout out abilities for you to use in combat, level your materia, and even level you up. This DMW mechanic is the only way you can level up in the game and it is entirely random. So, as you can tell, that gets really annoying very quickly. DMW stunts progression hard in favor of RNG ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥. I was underlevelled when I saw the end credits. I ended up beating the game at level 30. I've heard of people beating the game at level 45 on average. So I was kind of miffed throughout the whole game, just staring at this stupid slot machine mechanic work it's magic during combat. Eventually, I grew completely numb to it and mentally associated it with the occasional Kingdom Hearts ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ mechanic that series is known for some reason. Story? Genuinely feels like poorly written Final Fantasy 7 fan fiction. Everything about Zack is pure cringe. He's a mostly whiny, bratty dumbass, but a somewhat endearing one. He moves around like a cartoon character. Everything around Genesis is pure cringe. Everything about Angeal is pure cringe. Everything about the dialogue is cringe. Everything about the voice acting is cringe. But, there is some occasional really good scenes here and there though. There are two scenes that come to mind, and they show up in chapters 7 and 10. As good as those scenes were, I wouldn't say that it was worth slogging through the game for. It DID, however, left me really wanting to play Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth next. So, mission accomplished I guess? Game somewhat redeemed itself for me in the end I suppose. The story is NOWHERE NEAR AS GOOD AS PEOPLE SAY IT IS, not by any means, but it does have a couple good moments here and there. The random FMVs were pretty sweet too, not gonna lie. Music? There are a couple good pieces of music here. However, the biggest problem with the music is that it sounds like it fails to capture the magic of Final Fantasy 7. It feels like it doesn't understand it's own atmosphere. Most of the music feels like it belongs to an early 2000s racing game instead of, you know, Final Fantasy. Expect a lot of vague guitar noises. About 20 percent of the music was remixed from the original FFVII, 30 percent was ripped of from the Last Order: FF7 movie, and the other 50 percent might as well have all been remixes of the "Theme of Crisis Core" songs. Every single song here has made me think "This is inferior to the original". I will say though, the Final Fantasy theme in the credits was pretty great. Overall, Crisis Core Final Fantasy 7 Reunion is a very ok-ish experience that is filled to the brim with flaws. But it got the job done. I wanted a prelude to FF7 Rebirth before I start playing that behemoth and it got me in the Final Fantasy mood again. So what should be learned from my experience with this game? What is the moral of the story here? The first thing that comes to mind is that Crisis Core Final Fantasy 7 Reunion would've been a MUCH better game if it were an actual remake instead of a remaster. Crisis Core needed to shed the constraints that it was given on the PSP in favor of big budget and modern hardware in order to fully realize its potential. THAT is Crisis Core's biggest, most fundamental weakness. It blows mind mind how Square Enix didn't just give us a remake instead of whatever the hell Crisis Core was, but we are talking about the company that is known to make strange decisions all the time. Remember the time they put Cup Noodles in FFXV and had the main cast talk about a cup full of noodles like it's a 5 michelin star banquet?? Remember when they restructured their entire company in favor of pursuing NFTs before that entire thing blew up in their face? Remember when they couldn't help themselves and decided to shoehorn in a ton of plot altering ghosts in Final Fantasy 7 Remake instead of just given us an actual, true to form remake of Final Fantasy 7? What a weird company. What a very, very weird company. So out of touch, man. But me? Me? Gongaga. 6/10

完全过时的设计与叙事，不建议在2026年玩，如果你很喜欢ff7，我建议还是云完这个游戏的剧情得了 毕竟应该没有人会喜欢看到0/300的马桶列表，以及重复嗑蓝牙放魔法循环二十多分钟的boss战吧...

Really interesting prequel to the events of FF7. I disagree with the general take that this game is an optional play. In my opinion, this is a must play for FF7 fans. Unfortunately, this game is in a really weird spot where it can only be played by people who played the OG or who finished the entire Remake trilogy. Be careful when you play it so that you do not spoil yourself. If you are interested in getting the [b] FULL [/b] FF7 experience, do FF7 OG - Crisis Core - Advent Children - Remake - Rebirth - Revelation.