[Consol Games] Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII Reunion works best as a portable game

[Lucifer.]

After playing through the action-RPG’s first three chapters, I’ve come bearing an initial recommendation: prioritize portability over power. Though it may look like a flashy remake, Crisis Core is still very much the PlayStation Portable game that first launched in 2007. As such, devices like the Steam Deck and Nintendo Switch are a much better match for its design philosophies. Its pick-up-and-put-down nature simply holds up better when you’re taking it on the go, not grinding in front of a TV.

If you didn’t know that Crisis Core was originally a PSP exclusive, that fact would become immediately clear when starting its remake. Despite its modern touches meant to give it parity with Final Fantasy VII Remake, Square Enix isn’t going for a high-concept reimagining here; it’s simply applying a new coat of paint. The basic structure of the original remains almost entirely untouched, with tweaks just making combat feel smoother and UI look cleaner.

 

There’s an immediately noticeable contrast in something that looks like a console game from 2022, yet feels like a handheld title created for comparatively modest hardware in 2007. Take its mission structure, for instance. Its main quests are more bite-sized in nature, sending Zack Fair into compact maps with only a few side routes to explore. They usually feature some linear traversal, a handful of fairly static conversations to move the plot along, and a big boss fight against an enemy like Ifrit to round things out. Despite the fact that it looks closer to Final Fantasy VII Remake thanks to some asset sharing, it’s all a bit more straightforward. I can feel how the original was originally built to be played in chunks as opposed to a few long sit-downs.

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