There are plenty of prequels you can easily ignore, but Crisis Core –Final Fantasy VII– Reunion isn’t one of them. After finishing it, I really think Zack Fair’s story makes Final Fantasy VII even better. The original obviously works perfectly fine without knowing everything about him, but understanding Zack adds a lot more connection to Cloud, Aerith, and even Sephiroth.
Having already played Final Fantasy VII, Final Fantasy VII Remake and Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, I went into Crisis Core knowing roughly where Zack’s story was heading. Well, that didn’t make it any easier. If anything, knowing what was coming only made his journey more emotional. And with the Remake trilogy now playing around with events we once thought were set in stone, Zack has become more relevant than ever.
Fair warning: this review will cover Crisis Core, read the original Final Fantasy VII, Final Fantasy VII Remake, and Final Fantasy VII Rebirth to explain why this is important.
The man behind the sword
Long before Cloud Strife started introducing himself as a former SOLDIER, there was Zack Fair. An actual SOLDIER, mind you. When Crisis Core begins, he’s a SOLDIER 2nd Class working for Shinra, eager to prove himself and dreaming of becoming a hero. His mentor is Angeal Hewley, a SOLDIER 1st Class carrying a sword you probably recognize. Yes, the one thing my wife won’t stop talking about: the Buster Sword. Although she’s mostly wondering how these things stay attached to everyone’s backs. Fair question, actually. Zack soon finds himself investigating the disappearance of several SOLDIER operatives, but things get complicated when Angeal disappears as well. Another SOLDIER 1st Class, Genesis Rhapsodos, has turned against Shinra, while Sephiroth is still the hero everyone looks up to. Seeing him like this takes some getting used to when you know where his story is heading. And that’s a big part of the appeal of Crisis Core. You already know Cloud, Sephiroth and that ridiculously oversized sword, but there’s a whole story before Final Fantasy VII that brings them together. Zack is at the heart of it, chasing that dream of becoming a hero while you’re left wondering how much of this you really want to see unfold.
One of the strangest things about playing Crisis Core after Final Fantasy VII is seeing Sephiroth behave like a person. He has colleagues, he talks to Zack, and he investigates what happened to Genesis and Angeal. We’re so used to seeing him slowly walk through fire that it’s easy to forget why people once admired him. Here, you can actually understand it, even if you still have to wonder why Shinra gave the world’s most intimidating man a seven-foot sword. It makes what happens at Nibelheim all the harder to watch. I wrote my history thesis about real people who went on to do horrible things, and something that has always fascinated me is how easily knowing what someone did changes the way we look at their entire life. With Sephiroth, you already know where this is going, but Crisis Core gives you some time with the man he was before all of that. Before we get there, though, the game spends a lot of time digging into SOLDIER itself. Angeal and Genesis are connected to experiments involving Jenova cells, and their stories gradually reveal just how little Shinra cares about its own people. Genesis desperately searches for a cure while quoting LOVELESS more often than anyone probably needs him to, whereas Angeal struggles with what he’s learned about himself. Zack gets caught in the middle, trying to make sense of what’s happening to the people he looks up to. Through Angeal, we also learn why the Buster Sword means so much to him. He associates it with dreams, honor, and the pride of being in SOLDIER, ideals Zack takes to heart. The sword eventually passes from Angeal to Zack, and from Zack to Cloud. Knowing that history makes the sight of Cloud carrying it a whole lot sadder.
The story Cloud forgot
And this is where Crisis Core becomes essential to me rather than merely interesting. Cloud is here. But remember, this isn’t SOLDIER Cloud; it’s just Cloud. He’s a young Shinra infantryman who befriends Zack, looks up to him, and hasn’t yet become the person we meet at the beginning of Final Fantasy VII. Enter Nibelheim. If you’ve played the original game or Remake/Rebirth, you already know that something is deeply wrong with Cloud’s version of these events. Crisis Core shows us what actually happened. Zack accompanied Sephiroth to Nibelheim while Cloud traveled with them as an ordinary infantryman. Sephiroth discovered information about Jenova and his own origins, became increasingly unstable, and eventually destroyed the town. Zack confronted him and lost, but Cloud didn’t. The ordinary infantryman everyone underestimated managed to throw Sephiroth into the reactor’s depths. Hojo subsequently captured Zack and Cloud and experimented on them. Years later, Zack escaped and dragged a severely mako-poisoned Cloud towards Midgar, but Shinra caught up with them. This is where knowing how Crisis Core ends somehow doesn’t protect you from it. Zack fights, and fights, and fights until he can’t fight anymore. And it’s a pretty tough scene to actually play through. Before dying, he gives Cloud the Buster Sword and passes on what Angeal once gave him: his dreams, his honor, and the responsibility of becoming someone’s living legacy. Cloud then walks towards Midgar. What happens psychologically after that is one of the foundations of Final Fantasy VII. Cloud’s damaged mind blends pieces of Zack’s experiences with his own memories, creating the SOLDIER identity we meet at the beginning of the story. Crisis Core is, in many ways, the story Cloud has forgotten, and playing it makes his character considerably sadder.
And then Remake makes everything weird
Of course, Square Enix couldn’t leave it that simple, because Final Fantasy VII Remake exists. The original Crisis Core was designed as a straightforward prequel. Its destination was predetermined because Zack’s death needed to lead directly into Final Fantasy VII. Reunion preserves that story, but Remake does something else. By the end of Final Fantasy VII Remake, we see a version of events in which Zack apparently survives the battle that killed him in Crisis Core.
That completely changes how this prequel feels when played today. So no, I wouldn’t necessarily say Crisis Core explains Remake, but it does something more useful. It gives you the information required to understand why Zack appearing at all is such a big deal. Without Crisis Core, Zack can easily feel like another mysterious Final Fantasy character whom the remake trilogy expects you to recognize. After playing it? His presence is practically a warning siren, because something has changed. Exactly what Square Enix eventually intends to do with timelines, worlds, and Zack is another discussion, but Crisis Core gives that discussion emotional weight. You know what was supposed to happen, and more importantly, you now know why it mattered.
And Rebirth only pushes that further. Zack is no longer just an unexpected image at the end of Remake; he becomes an active part of the mystery surrounding the different worlds the remake trilogy is playing with. And to be fair, that works considerably better when you’ve actually spent a game with him. The question is no longer simply why Zack is here; it becomes why a man whose death helped create the Cloud we know is suddenly allowed to exist somewhere else.
As a game, though, Crisis Core is noticeably different from the other Final Fantasy VII titles I’ve played, mostly because this is easily the most linear of them. The original Final Fantasy VII eventually opens up into a world map. Remake creates larger spaces around its linear story and gives Midgar room to breathe. Crisis Core, meanwhile, frequently feels like exactly what it originally was: a PSP game. The story progresses through ten chapters, moving Zack through relatively compact areas before sending him towards another combat encounter, cutscene, or boss.
Strangely, I didn’t mind that much. There is something refreshing about a Final Fantasy game that occasionally just says, “Here’s the story, now go this way,” especially because Zack’s narrative benefits from that momentum. You’re watching his worldview change surprisingly quickly. SOLDIER heroes disappear, Shinra’s experiments become clearer, Sephiroth falls apart, Zack meets Aerith, and Cloud enters his life. And then everything collapses. I don’t think opening that story up into forty hours of wandering around would have improved it.
Aerith before Cloud
And yes, Aerith is here too. Her relationship with Zack might actually be the piece of Crisis Core that most changed how I look at Final Fantasy VII Remake. Zack meets her after literally falling into the Sector 5 church. Apparently, this is just how men enter Aerith’s life.
They gradually grow close, with Zack encouraging her to sell flowers and Aerith providing one of the few parts of his life completely removed from SOLDIER, Shinra, and experiments involving increasingly unfortunate quantities of Jenova. Their relationship is sweet largely because Zack himself is so relentlessly sincere, mainly because he’s not Cloud. Our other hero, Cloud, is awkward, guarded, and constantly trying to look like someone who knows what he’s doing. Zack actually does know what he’s doing. Well, mostly.
Seeing Aerith with him adds another layer to practically every later interaction she has with Cloud, particularly once you understand how much of Zack is unconsciously present in the person standing in front of her. Again, Final Fantasy VII worked perfectly well without Crisis Core, but Crisis Core changes the texture of that story, which is exactly what a good prequel should do.
Combat is considerably more modern than the game’s PSP origins might suggest. Reunion overhauled the original presentation and battle system, adding renewed character models, fully voiced dialogue, and rearranged music alongside smoother combat. Zack fights in real time, combining sword attacks with Materia-based magic and abilities. And then there’s the Digital Mind Wave, shortened to DMW. Or, as I initially understood it: Why is there a slot machine permanently spinning in the corner of my screen? The DMW constantly cycles through character portraits and numbers during combat, triggering effects when combinations line up. It can activate Limit Breaks, summons, and buffs, and even Zack’s leveling is tied into the system. That sounds considerably more irritating than it actually is. There’s randomness involved, but you retain control over Zack’s equipment and Materia, including a surprisingly flexible Materia Fusion system. Eventually, I largely stopped thinking about the wheel itself and simply enjoyed whatever ridiculous thing it decided to give me, including overpowered summons and very flashy ultimate attacks. Which feels appropriate for a Final Fantasy game.
Three hundred ways to avoid the plot
If the main story feels short, Crisis Core certainly has an answer: Missions. Lots of missions. How many? How about three hundred? They are bite-sized combat challenges accessed separately from the main storyline and can reward Materia, accessories, summons, and other useful upgrades. This is simultaneously one of Crisis Core’s biggest strengths and one of the places where its PSP origins become impossible to ignore. Yes, they are perfect portable content, where you can pick up the system, run through a small area, kill something unpleasant, collect a reward, and put the system away. Which is also why it works perfectly on Nintendo Switch 2. But many of these missions use essentially the same structure, environments, and enemies, so doing too many in one sitting gets repetitive quickly. Still, I liked having them there. You don’t need to finish anywhere near all of them, but doing some missions lets you experiment with Materia Fusion and character builds while giving the relatively short main campaign a considerable amount of optional padding. And yes, padding is the correct word. Useful padding, and often enjoyable padding, but padding nonetheless, fitting for the era.
Ignore most of those missions and Crisis Core is surprisingly compact. Unless, like me, you’re a sucker for completion. For some RPG players, that may sound disappointing, but I actually think it works in the game’s favor. Why? Well, this isn’t supposed to be Zack’s eighty-hour grand adventure. Look at it as the missing chapter before Cloud’s story, though, and that shorter length starts to make much more sense. The side content is there if you want to spend more time with the combat systems, but the main narrative rarely overstays its welcome. Considering how emotionally heavy the final stretch becomes, I appreciated that. Not every Final Fantasy game needs to consume several weeks of my life, apparently. Although if I insist on finishing all 300 missions, this one probably will.
Back on Nintendo hardware
The new Switch 2 version is also an excellent way to play it, and importantly, this isn’t simply the old Switch release running through backward compatibility. Square Enix released a separate native Nintendo Switch 2 edition, which is the version we reviewed, although save data doesn’t transfer between the two versions. I can conclude that my experience was excellent: it looks sharp, the character models hold up surprisingly well, and combat stayed smooth throughout my playthrough. The remaster already did a remarkable job modernizing a PSP game visually, and on Switch 2 the gap between Crisis Core and the much newer Final Fantasy VII Remake/Rebirth feels less distracting than I expected. You can still see the PSP skeleton underneath, particularly in the small environments and compact level design, mostly because a remaster cannot disguise that completely. But technically? I had very little to complain about. And considering how naturally those short Missions fit portable play, Switch 2 hardware might actually be where the structure works best.
Conclusion
Crisis Core –Final Fantasy VII– Reunion isn’t essential to understand Final Fantasy VII, but it adds a lot of extra depth to its characters, especially Zack Fair. The game still shows its PSP origins through its linear structure and repetitive optional missions, but its story remains surprisingly effective. The Nintendo Switch 2 version looks and runs great, and Zack’s role feels more relevant than ever thanks to Remake and Rebirth. This is the story you need to know before you can fully appreciate the story Cloud forgot.