CRISIS CORE –FINAL FANTASY VII– REUNION

[b] 8/10 [/b] Runs well on Legion Go with some stuttering Wow, I loved this way more than I was expecting to! I consider myself new to Final Fantasy, having played 16, Remake, and Rebirth. I figured now would be a good time to jump into Crisis Core Reunion since it's still considered cannon to both OG FF7 and the remake trilogy. Learning this was originally a PSP game, I wasn't expecting too much, but I was blown away by the journey with the characters. [b] Positives: [/b] This game does 3 major things incredibly well: It spends way more time with Zack Fair, humanizes Sephiroth and explains some of his motives, and humanizes the Turks beyond just being antagonists to Avalanche. Without going into spoilers on the specifics, this lets us follow Zack's journey starting with the War with Wutai all the way up to the events of FF7 including the events with him shown in Remake. The plot itself is kinda nonsense, but it adds so much depth to the characters of Zack and Sephiroth specifically, while also connecting pieces of the lore and events going on in Remake and Rebirth, which was super helpful for me since I'm still wrapping my head around it all. I understand things Sephiroth said in Rebirth now. I understand much more of Cloud's internal conflict now. That alone made it worth playing. The pacing on this one is really good with very little filler unlike FF16 or parts of Remake. There is a bit of grinding you have to do on the Missions in order to get your stats high enough for later chapters, but thankfully the loading times are short and the missions themselves are pretty straightforward and don't waste your time. You fight and watch story moments. Nothing really extra. Which is great for this game. I actually like this combat system better than Remake's. It fully commits to the real-time combat, and while it isn't my favorite combat system, it is neat and it works in this game. The music is fantastic. The characters. That's what I'm here for, and this did not disappoint. I loved Zack in Rebirth and wanted more of him, and this game gave me exactly that. I am now convinced Zack Fair is my favorite FF protagonist. Getting to see him interact with the Turks, with Sephiroth when they are both SOLDIERs, with Aerith, and meeting Cloud was awesome! Themes. I feel like the underlying theme of Reunion is "Can someone noble serve a cause that is ignoble?" We know Shinra's dark side. We know the atrocities SOLDIER and the Turks commit. And yet, they are still people like us. Zack's internal commitment to being an honorable person isn't cringe, it's admirable. He carries that commitment to not being someone corrupt even when he begins to experience the more questionable things going on around him. He can represent what SOLDIER should be, and we see through his interactions with others how that actually inspires them to be better. Tseng, Cissnei, Kunsel, even Cloud are motivated to be better people than just the tools of the organization giving them orders. Is that all because of Zack? Maybe not, but it is at least in part because of him. The ending. This is actually the only FF game that had a fully satisfying ending for me. I got so lost with Remake's ending. FF16 ending's totally flopped for me, and Rebirth's ending was good but you know feels like the middle of a trilogy so there isn't a lot of closure yet. Reunion's ending left me satisfied and in tears. [b] Negatives: [/b] Optimization isn't great, which I'm starting to see as a pattern in the FF PC releases... There is no option to configure screen resolution within the game, and very few graphical tweaks can be made. The game also stutters during combat and sometimes when loading in enemies, something that could be possibly be fixed if there was an option to turn down some of the combat animation effects, but alas... at least it does run and without crashes or game-breaking bugs. [b] Overall: [/b] Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII: Reunion is a light, real-time action game that doesn't overstay its welcome and fleshes out the events leading up to Final Fantasy VII, deepening the characters and filling in some of the worldbuilding. If you have played Remake and Rebirth, definitely give this one a go!