GameSpot’s very own Phil Hornshaw had a chance to go hands-on with Crisis Core: Final Fantasy Reunion at a Square Enix event, where he was able to check how the updated graphics and gameplay felt.
Final Fantasy VII Remake set a high bar for reviving a classic game, both retelling the original game’s story and altering it in key ways to create something new. Crisis Core is a prequel to the original FFVII, but despite its links to FFVII Remake’s revised story, producer Mariko Sato previously told GameSpot that Reunion is hewing closely to the original Crisis Core’s story. That’s what we saw in the demo as well–the story and cutscenes of Crisis Core Reunion seem extremely similar to what was in the original game. The primary changes and improvements are in Reunion’s combat.
Crisis Core keeps all its fighting in real-time–using your special abilities, magic spells, or healing items is done with by pressing different combinations of buttons, and there’s no break in the action like in FFVII Remake. With Crisis Core Reunion, however, it’s clear that the movement, melee fighting, and camera systems have been tuned up, making the combat feel like a Crisis Core spin on FFVII Remake’s foundation.
Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII Reunion is set to release on December 13, 2022.
