Crisis Core: Final Fantasy 7 Reunion is a “faithful retelling” of its story

Crisis Core Reunion protagonist Zack Fair stares at the camera
(Image credit: Square Enix)

Unlike Final Fantasy 7 Remake, Crisis Core: Final Fantasy 7 - Reunion will have a story that’s faithful to its source material, though combat will be tweaked so fans coming over will have something familiar. 

Speaking to Press Start, producer Mariko Sato confirms that the story will be as you remember it from Crisis Core, though not everything remains untouched. 

“In regards to new things in Crisis Core Reunion story wise, we’re really doing a faithful retelling of the original Crisis Core so there are no new story elements but there are, on the other hand, many adjustments and improvements that we made to the gameplay experience as a whole,” Sato explains. “One of the big things was the battles, we wanted to make sure that players coming from the Final Fantasy VII Remake experience would be able to kind of just jump into Crisis Core and have a smooth experience. So there’s some adjustments we’re making there. 

“And also it’s going to be fully voiced this time, the music tracks are all rearranged, and there’s just so many small and big improvements that we’ve been making – too many to list here – but I really hope that players will be able to enjoy this Crisis Core experience.”

As Square Enix explains in a new blog post, Crisis Core Reunion features a combat system that meshes command-based systems with action gameplay – just like Final Fantasy 7 Remake. You’ll control Zack during battles, fighting directly with sword skills or using pre-set magic and abilities from your Materia. 

While some things are set to change, there’s still plenty that’ll remain familiar. Square Enix confirmed on Twitter that Digital Mind Wave is still here. If you’ve been out of the loop, the mechanic functions like a slot machine that spins when you earn enough points by swatting goons. Lining up three of the same images unleashes a Limit Break attack, heals Zack, or powers up Materia. 

Meanwhile, Final Fantasy 7 Remake could have been two games instead of three.

Deputy News Editor

Iain joins the GamesRadar team as Deputy News Editor following stints at PCGamesN and PocketGamer.Biz, with some freelance for Kotaku UK, RockPaperShotgun, and VG24/7 thrown in for good measure. When not helping Ali run the news team, he can be found digging into communities for stories – the sillier the better. When he isn’t pillaging the depths of Final Fantasy 14 for a swanky new hat, you’ll find him amassing an army of Pokemon plushies.