A return to FFVII Crisis Core

I’m a PlayStation person – I’ve got a PS5 now and prior to that have had multiple versions of every previous generation of consoles and also both handhelds. Square Enix’s epic series Final Fantasy is one of the main reasons for my affection for the console – as Final Fantasy VII on the original was a turning point for me in playing JRPGs (Japanese Role Playing Games). Its prequel Crisis Core was why I bought the PlayStation Portable and so the news that there was a remastering of this for modern consoles using the same engine as the FFVII Remake meant I’d preordered as soon as I could.

And well… just look at this graphical difference!

The story shows the events that lead up to the beginning of Final Fantasy VII – we follow a SOLDIER (enhanced human) called Zack Fair as he goes on missions for his employer Shinra (Evil Inc.) and tries to deal with his friends and mentors going missing and worse, turning into humanoid monsters. Along the way he befriends characters we meet in FFVII like the Turks (security division for Shinra, basically spies and hit squad), and in particular he starts dating Aerith (a main character in FFVII) and befriends the protagonist of FFVII Cloud whilst Cloud is still just a young infantryman.

Whilst the general game is the same with improved graphics there are some good quality of life improvements as well. The controls and handling of materia (magic and abilities) is great and could be used in other games as a quick way to access your loaded abilities. The guarding / blocking / dodge works better than most games too. And the quirky DMW slot machine function for triggering limit breaks and power ups is a lot more unobtrusive.

As for the story? I think it really benefits from the improved graphical quality giving more expression and emotion visibly to characters. In particular, I don’t think I’m alone in saying that it really makes you empathise with Sephiroth (the big bad of Final Fantasy VII) because you can visibly see him happy, amused, sympathetic, and sad – it adds humanity to him as a character before it all goes horribly wrong when he finds out something that shatters his grip on reality.

Basically I’d really recommend this game to anyone who liked Final Fantasy VII. It adds a lot of depth to the story and the world in general – we understand more about the Turks, Soldier, Shinra and how Cloud became who he is. And it’s just very pretty to look at and play too.